Companies in the semiconductor industry have a good reason to be ecstatic about their future. Why? In a recent data released by WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade Statistics), worldwide semiconductor market is forecasted to be USD 298 billion in 2013; to be historical high in 2014 at 5.1% growth or USD 313 billion; and, the trend is expected to continue in 2015 as it will reach USD 325 billion, which is 3.8% up.
Just like with all other semiconductor industry segments, the figures above also mean a promising future for the semiconductor process technology manufacturers, including those who are into making innovations for more effective silicon wafer cleaning processes.
And, speaking of silicon wafer cleaning, the types of processes/technologies used in silicon wafer cleaning at present can be classified into three (at least from what I know) and these are the following:
Dry cleaning – this particular cleaning technology involves several techniques, which include these processes: Ozonated chemistries (aka UV-ozone clean) that is known to be environmentally friendly alternative to sulfuric acid; Dry Ice (CO2 based; Aerosols, which relies on a momentum transfer mechanism; Vapor Phase; and the Laser Assisted method.
Wet process – the wet cleaning techniques include immersion (immerse cassette in chemical bath); megasonic cleaning, which uses vibrational scrubbing method in a non-contact mode; Centrifugal Spray (continuously spray freshly blended chemicals and high purity water); aqueous cleaning (a process that involves at least 95 percent water)
The alternative – this is a combination of dry and wet method
Silicon wafer cleaning process, while it has come a long way since its inception, still need to be improved to better serve the semiconductor industry. This can be done through continued research and design innovations, so to come up with much better technologies that will not only hasten the processes but will improve the quality of the finish in an economical way possible.
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