Damage-Free Cryogenic Aerosol Clean Processes

Nitrogen cryogenic aerosol processes have been evaluated for damage free cleaning on 90nm and 65nm technologies at the IBM 300mm manufacturing line. Process results on the 90nm technology at the post spacer nitride deposition clean have shown no damage and particle removal efficiency greater than 92%. Implementation of the same aerosol process at the post cobalt silicide (CoSi) probe test clean on 90nm high aspect ratio gate structure has shown significant improvement over the previous process of record argon based aerosol. Evaluation of the post nickel silicide (NiSi) probe test clean on 65nm device technology with low aspect ratio gate structure have shown the process is damage-free with particle removal efficiency greater than 95%. This process has been implemented in the 65nm technology flow and has proven to be damage-free in volume manufacturing