Post-CMP Cleaning Solutions for Semiconductor Manufacturing

Post-CMP cleaning has a direct effect on wafer cleanliness, process stability, device reliability and yield.

After chemical mechanical planarisation (CMP), slurry particles, metallic contaminants and organic residue have to be removed from the wafer surface before the next step, or they turn into defects further down the line.

As devices shrink and packaging becomes more complex, the contamination limits for post-CMP cleaning keep getting tighter.

SiSTEM supplies post-CMP cleaning consumables and equipment for research and production across Europe.

Why Post-CMP Cleaning Matters

CMP gives the wafer the flat surface that device fabrication needs, but polishing can leave abrasive slurry particles, metallic residue, organic contamination and surface defects behind.

Even small amounts of contamination can affect:

• Wafer yield and process consistency
• Device reliability over the life of the part
• Thin film integrity and bonding quality
• Packaging processes
• The lithography and deposition steps that follow

Contamination Control

A production post-CMP clean has to deliver low defectivity on every wafer, so the process is set up around:

• Slurry residue removal
• Metallic contamination reduction
• Organic defect control
• Surface particle removal
• Low defectivity
• Repeatable results and stable yield

Where Post-CMP Cleaning Matters Most

As geometries shrink and heterogeneous integration and packaging develop, the post-CMP clean matters at more points in the process. Applications that depend on it include:

• FEOL, MOL and BEOL processing
• Semiconductor packaging
• HBM manufacturing
• Hybrid bonding
• Photomask cleaning
• Wafer reclaim and substrate cleaning
• MEMS and micro-sensor manufacturing

Purience PVA Brushes

SiSTEM supplies Purience PVA roller brushes for post-CMP wafer cleaning, in 200 mm and 300 mm sizes for AMAT, Lam Research OnTrak, Ebara and Unipla cleaners, and we hold them in stock in the UK. Purience makes the sponge and core as one part from hydrophilic, open-cell PVA. The Purience brush page lists which brush fits which cleaner.

Megasonic Cleaning After CMP

Purience brushes clean the wafer surface by contact. Megasonic cleaning is the other route, used where patterned features need a gentler clean: sound at 850 kHz to 2 MHz in dilute alkaline chemistry lifts slurry particles and polishing residue from the wafer, and acoustic streaming carries them away so they don’t settle back. SiSTEM supplies Modutek wet benches with quartz megasonic tanks across the UK and Europe. Our megasonic cleaning page explains how it works and where it fits in a wafer clean.

Discuss Your Post-CMP Cleaning Requirements

SiSTEM supports semiconductor customers across Europe with post-CMP cleaning consumables and equipment.

Contact our team to talk through your process, wafer sizes, equipment compatibility and the cleaning problem you’re trying to solve.