U.S. patent application number 13/740128 was filed with the patent office on 2014-07-17 for method and device for cleaning a brush surface having a contamination.
This patent application is currently assigned to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.. The applicant listed for this patent is TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.. Invention is credited to Soon-Kang HUANG, Jeng-Jyi HWANG, Jiann-Lih WU, Chi-Ming YANG.
Application Number | 20140196744 13/740128 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 51164241 |
Filed Date | 2014-07-17 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140196744 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
WU; Jiann-Lih ; et
al. |
July 17, 2014 |
METHOD AND DEVICE FOR CLEANING A BRUSH SURFACE HAVING A
CONTAMINATION
Abstract
A method for cleaning a brush surface having a contamination is
provided. The method includes steps of: providing a mechanical
wave; and stripping off the contamination from the brush surface by
the mechanical wave.
Inventors: |
WU; Jiann-Lih; (Hsin-Chu
City, TW) ; HWANG; Jeng-Jyi; (Hsin-Chu County,
TW) ; HUANG; Soon-Kang; (Hsin-Chu City, TW) ;
YANG; Chi-Ming; (Hsin-Chu City, TW) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD. |
Hsinchu City |
|
TW |
|
|
Assignee: |
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Company, Ltd.
Hsinchu City
TW
|
Family ID: |
51164241 |
Appl. No.: |
13/740128 |
Filed: |
January 11, 2013 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
134/1 ;
15/1.51 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A46B 17/06 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
134/1 ;
15/1.51 |
International
Class: |
A46B 17/06 20060101
A46B017/06 |
Claims
1. A method for cleaning a brush surface having a contamination,
comprising steps of: providing a mechanical wave; and stripping off
the contamination from the brush surface by the mechanical
wave.
2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the contamination
includes a contaminant particle having a particle surface, the
brush surface has a first surface charge thereon, the particle
surface has a second surface charge thereon, the first surface
charge has an electric polarity the same with that of the second
surface charge, and the method further comprises steps of:
enhancing the second surface charge, so that the contaminant
particle is repelled from the brush surface; and causing the brush
surface to have a motion.
3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein: the electric polarity
is negative; and the motion includes a rotation.
4. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the step of enhancing
the second surface charge on the particle surface is performed by a
functional water process.
5. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the step of enhancing
the second surface charge on the particle surface is performed by a
chemical process.
6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein: the mechanical wave is
a megasonic wave, and is applied to the brush surface through a
fluid; the fluid includes one of a functional water and an alkaline
solution; and the brush surface is used to clean a wafer in a
chemical-mechanical planarization process.
7. A method for cleaning a brush surface having a first surface
charge and a contaminant particle having a particle surface having
a second surface charge, wherein the first surface charge has an
electric polarity the same with that of the second surface charge,
comprising a step of: causing the second surface charge to be
enhanced, so that the contaminant particle is repelled from the
brush surface.
8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the electric polarity is
negative.
9. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the step of enhancing
the second surface charge is performed by a functional water
process.
10. A method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the functional water
process is performed by adding an H2 water to form a solution
system for reducing a oxidation/reduction potential of the solution
system.
11. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the step of enhancing
the second surface charge is performed by a chemical process.
12. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the chemical process
is performed by adding an alkaline solution to reduce a zeta
potential of the contaminant particle.
13. A method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the chemical process
is used to facilitate a dissociation of a functional group from the
contaminant particle.
14. A device for cleaning a brush surface having a first surface
charge and a contaminant particle having a particle surface having
a second surface charge, wherein the first surface charge has an
electric polarity the same with that of the second surface charge,
comprising: a cleaning module configured to enhance the second
surface charge on the particle surface, so that the contaminant
particle is repelled from the brush surface.
15. A device as claimed in claim 14, further comprising: a bath
including a pool region, a bottom region, an inlet region and a
first wall disposed above the inlet region, wherein the inlet
region provides a fluid to the pool region therethrough, and the
fluid includes at least one of a functional water and an alkaline
solution; a megasonic device disposed in the bottom region, and
providing a mechanical wave; a discharge unit including an overflow
region surrounding the first wall, a second wall surrounding the
overflow region, and an outlet region, wherein when the pool region
overflows, an overflow portion of the fluid is discharged through
the overflow region and the outlet region.
16. A method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the mechanical wave is
a megasonic wave.
17. A device as claimed in claim 15, wherein the cleaning module
performs a functional water process to reduce a oxidation/reduction
potential of the fluid.
18. A device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the cleaning module
performs a chemical process to reduce a zeta potential of the
contaminant particle.
19. A device as claimed in claim 14, wherein the contaminant
particle is one selected from a group consisting of a PSi, an
Si3N4, an SiO2, an Al2O3, and the combination thereof.
20. A device as claimed in claim 14, further comprising a detector
detecting an electric polarity of one of the first and second
surface charges.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present disclosure relates to a cleaning method and
device, and more particularly to a method and device for cleaning a
brush surface having a contamination.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Nowadays the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process has
been widely used in the manufacture process of the semiconductor
wafer. The conventional CMP tool includes a post-CMP cleaning
module, wherein the post-CMP cleaning module includes a roller
cleaner (such as a roller type brush), a pencil cleaner (such as a
pencil type brush) and a dryer. The wafer polished is transferred
to the roller cleaner and the pencil cleaner to scrub the slurry
residue from the wafer surface, and then transferred to the dryer
to dry the wafer. During the cleaning process performed by the
roller cleaner and the pencil cleaner, there are many by-products
(such as a contaminant particle) produced and accumulated on the
brush surface, which may scratch the wafer surface during the
cleaning process; thus, the conventional post-CMP cleaning module
further includes a deionize (DI) rinse process and a quartz
scrubber to clean those brushes. However, the cleaning efficiency
of the deionize (DI) rinse process and the quartz scrubber is not
well enough to remove the contaminant particle formed on the brush
surface, and as the size of the wafer becomes larger than 450 mm,
the loading of the brush has become larger, either, which may
shorten the life time of the brush.
[0003] Hence, because of the defects in the prior arts, there is a
need to solve the above problems.
SUMMARY
[0004] In accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, a
device for cleaning a brush surface having a first surface charge
and a contaminant particle having a particle surface having a
second surface charge is provided, wherein the first surface charge
has an electric polarity the same with that of the second surface
charge. The device includes a cleaning module configured to enhance
the second surface charge on the particle surface, so that the
contaminant particle is repelled from the brush surface.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] The present disclosure is best understood from the following
detailed description when read with the accompanying figures. It is
emphasized that, in accordance with the standard practice in the
industry, various features are not shown to scale and are used for
illustration purposes only. In fact, the dimensions of the various
features may be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity of
discussion.
[0006] FIG. 1A shows a device for cleaning a brush surface in
accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0007] FIG. 1B illustrates a top view diagram of the device shown
in FIG. 1A.
[0008] FIG. 2 illustrates a brush surface with a first surface
charge and a contamination with a second surface charge in
accordance with another embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0009] FIG. 3 shows the correlation between the PH and the zeta
potential.
[0010] FIG. 4 shows a diagram of the brush surface having a
contaminant particle.
[0011] FIG. 5A shows the experiment result about the remained
amount of the contaminant particle for a first group of cleaning
processes.
[0012] FIG. 5B shows the experiments result about the remained
amount of the contaminant particle for a second group of cleaning
processes.
[0013] FIG. 6 illustrates a flow chart of a method for cleaning the
brush surface having a contamination in accordance with an
embodiment of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0014] The present disclosure will be described with respect to
particular embodiments and with reference to certain drawings, but
the disclosure is not limited thereto but is only limited by the
claims. The drawings described are only schematic and are
non-limiting. In the drawings, the size of some of the elements may
be exaggerated and not drawn on scale for illustrative purposes.
The dimensions and the relative dimensions do not necessarily
correspond to actual reductions to practice.
[0015] Furthermore, the terms first, second and the like in the
description and in the claims, are used for distinguishing between
similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequence,
either temporally, spatially, in ranking or in any other manner. It
is to be understood that the terms so used are interchangeable
under appropriate circumstances and that the embodiments described
herein are capable of operation in other sequences than described
or illustrated herein.
[0016] It is to be noticed that the term "comprising", used in the
claims, should not be interpreted as being restricted to the means
listed thereafter; it does not exclude other elements or steps. It
is thus to be interpreted as specifying the presence of the stated
features, integers, steps or components as referred to, but does
not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other
features, integers, steps or components, or groups thereof. Thus,
the scope of the expression "a device comprising means A and B"
should not be limited to devices consisting only of components A
and B.
[0017] Reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment"
or "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure or
characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is
included in at least one embodiment. Thus, appearances of the
phrases "in one embodiment" or "in an embodiment" in various places
throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to
the same embodiment, but may. Furthermore, the particular features,
structures or characteristics may be combined in any suitable
manner, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art
from this disclosure, in one or more embodiments.
[0018] Similarly it should be appreciated that in the description
of exemplary embodiments, various features are sometimes grouped
together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for
the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the
understanding of one or more of the various inventive aspects. This
method of disclosure, however, is not to be interpreted as
reflecting an intention that the claimed invention requires more
features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the
following claims reflect, inventive aspects lie in less than all
features of a single foregoing disclosed embodiment. Thus, the
claims following the detailed description are hereby expressly
incorporated into this detailed description, with each claim
standing on its own as a separate embodiment.
[0019] Furthermore, while some embodiments described herein include
some but not other features included in other embodiments,
combinations of features of different embodiments are meant to be
within the scope of the invention, and form different embodiments,
as would be understood by those in the art. For example, in the
following claims, any of the claimed embodiments can be used in any
combination.
[0020] In the description provided herein, numerous specific
details are set forth. However, it is understood that embodiments
may be practiced without these specific details. In other
instances, well-known methods, structures and techniques have not
been shown in detail in order not to obscure an understanding of
this description.
[0021] The present disclosure will now be described by a detailed
description of several embodiments. It is clear that other
embodiments can be configured according to the knowledge of persons
skilled in the art without departing from the true technical
teaching of the present disclosure, the claimed invention being
limited only by the terms of the appended claims.
[0022] Hereafter, embodiments of the present invention will be
explained in detail with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
[0023] Please refer to FIGS. 1A, 1B and 2. FIG. 1A shows a device
100 for cleaning a brush surface 202 in accordance with an
embodiment of the present disclosure; FIG. 1B illustrates a top
view diagram of the device 100 shown in FIG. 1A; and FIG. 2
illustrates a brush surface 202 with a first surface charge 210 and
a contamination 204 with a second surface charge 212 in accordance
with another embodiment of the present disclosure. During the
post-CMP cleaning period, there are many by-products generated and
accumulated on the brush surface 202, which includes the
contamination 204. However, the contamination 204 on the brush
surface 202 may scratch the wafer surface during the post-CMP
cleaning period; thus, the device 100 shown in FIG. 1A is used to
clean the contamination 204 from the brush surface 202. Referring
to FIG. 2, the contamination 204 includes a contaminant particle
206 having a particle surface 208, the brush surface 202 has a
first surface charge 210 thereon, the particle surface 208 has a
second surface charge 212 thereon, and the first surface charge 210
has an electric polarity the same with that of the second surface
charge 212. In one embodiment, the device 100 further includes a
detector 128 used for detecting the electric polarity of one of the
first and second surface charges 210 and 212. In another
embodiment, the electric polarity is negative, as shown in FIG. 2.
For cleaning the brush surface 202, a cleaning method is designed
to repel the contaminant particle 206 from the brush surface 202
and further prevent the contaminant particle 206 from re-adhering
to the brush surface 202. The device 100 is configured to implement
the cleaning method mentioned above to clean the brush surface
202.
[0024] Please refer to FIG. 1A, which illustrates the device 100
for cleaning the brush surface 202 mentioned above, wherein the
device 100 includes a cleaning module 102 configured to enhance the
second surface charge 212 on the particle surface 208 to repel the
contaminant particle 206 from the brush surface 202. In one
embodiment, the first surface charge 210 has a first charge
quantity, and the second surface charge 212 has a second charge
quantity, wherein the first charge quantity may be larger, equal or
smaller than the second charge quantity. The cleaning module 102 is
configured to enhance the second surface charge 212 to have a third
charge quantity, wherein the third charge quantity is larger than
the second electric quantity; thus, the repulsive force between the
first surface charge 210 and the second surface charge 212 may be
strengthen, and the contaminant particle 206 may be further
repelled from the brush surface 202. That is to say, the repelled
(detached) contaminant particle 206 may not re-adhere to the brush
surface 202. In one embodiment, the cleaning module 102 further
includes a first cleaning sub-module 104 and a second cleaning
sub-module 106 to implement the cleaning method mentioned
above.
[0025] In one embodiment, the device 100 further includes a bath
108, a megasonic device 110 and a discharge unit 112, wherein the
bath 108 includes a pool region 114, a bottom region 116, an inlet
region 118 and a first wall 120. The brush (not shown) to be
cleaned is disposed in the pool region 114, and has the brush
surface 202; and the megasonic device 110 is disposed in the bottom
region 116. The discharge unit 112 includes an overflow region 122,
a second wall 124 and an outlet region 126, wherein the overflow
region 122 surrounds the first wall 120 and the second wall 124
surrounds the overflow region 122, as shown in FIG. 1B. Referring
to FIG. 1A, the cleaning module 104 includes the bath 108 and the
discharge unit 112; each of the first cleaning sub-module 104 and
the second cleaning sub-module 106 includes the bath 108 and the
discharge unit 112; the first cleaning sub-module 104 performs a
functional water process to reduce the oxidation/reduction
potential; and the second cleaning sub-module 106 performs a
chemical process to reduce the zeta potential. It should be
appreciate that the effects of performing the functional water
process and the chemical process are the same, trying to enhance
the second surface charge 212 on the contaminant particle 206, as
explained later.
[0026] Referring to FIG. 1A, when the brush to be cleaned is
disposed in the pool region 114, a fluid is provided to the pool
region 114 through the inlet region 118. In one embodiment, the
inlet region 118 is controlled to provide the fluid to the pool
region 114 according to the position relationship between the brush
and the pool region 114. The fluid may include at least one of a
functional water and an alkaline solution. In one aspect, for
performing the functional water process by the first cleaning
sub-module 104, the fluid is configured to include the functional
water, which is added to the pool region 114 to form a first
solution system. For example, the functional water may include a H2
water, which is added to the pool region 114 to form the first
solution system to reduce the oxidation/reduction potential of the
first solution system, wherein the first solution system includes
the contaminant particle 206, the brush surface 202 and the H2
water. In another aspect, for performing the chemical process by
the second cleaning sub-module 106, the fluid is configured to
include the alkaline solution, which is added to the pool region
114 to form a second solution system. For example, the alkaline
solution may include an NH4 solution, which is added to the pool
region 114 to reduce a zeta potential of the contaminant particle
206, wherein the second solution system includes the contaminant
particle 206, the brush surface 202 and the NH4 solution. Adding
the alkaline solution is used to facilitate a dissociation of a
functional group from the contaminant particle 206. In one
embodiment, the contaminant particle 206 is one selected from a
group consisting of PSi, Si3N4, SiO2, Al2O3, and the combination
thereof. In one embodiment, the functional water is added to the
pool region 114 to reduce the oxidation/reduction potential of the
contaminant particle 206 for enhancing the second surface charge
212 of the contaminant particle 206.
[0027] Please refer to FIG. 3, which shows the correlation between
the PH and the zeta potential. In FIG. 3, the x axis represents the
PH, and the y axis represents the zeta potential (mV). According to
the correlation between the PH and the zeta potential, when the
potential of hydrogen (PH) increases, the dissociation of the
functional group of the contaminant particle 206 may increase with
the potential of hydrogen and the zeta potential of the contaminant
particle 206 is declined; thus, the second surface charge 212 of
the contaminant particle 206 is to be enhanced to have the third
charge quantity. Under the condition that the second surface charge
212 is enhanced to have the third charge quantity, the repulsive
force between the brush surface 202 and the contaminant particle
206 is strengthen, thereby preventing the contaminant particle 206
from re-adhering to the brush surface 202. In another embodiment,
the fluid is acted as a medium for the mega sonic device 110 to
provide a mechanical wave to the brush surface 202 to repel the
contaminant particle 206.
[0028] Please refer to FIGS. 1A and 4, wherein FIG. 4 shows a
diagram of the brush surface 202 having a contaminant particle 206.
When the brush begins to be washed, the inlet region 118 provides
the fluid to the pool region 114 therethrough to form a third
solution system in the pool region 114, the third solution system
includes the fluid, the contaminant particle 206 and the brush
surface 202. The megasonic device 110 is disposed in the bottom
region 116 and provides a mechanical wave to the brush surface 202.
The mechanical wave forms a physical force to lift off or strip off
the contaminant particle 206 from the brush surface 202, as shown
in FIG. 4, wherein the mechanical wave travels to the brush surface
202 through the fluid. In one embodiment, the mechanical wave is a
megasonic wave; for example, the megasonic wave typically has a
frequency ranging from 0.8 to 2.0 MHz. The megasonic wave repels
the contaminant particle 206 from the brush surface 202. In order
to prevent the contaminant particle 206 from re-adhering to the
brush surface 202, at least one of the functional water (such as
the H2 water) and the alkaline solution (such as the NH4 solution)
is provided to the pool region 114 through the inlet region 118 to
form the third solution system. When the functional water is
provided to the brush surface 202, the functional water reduces the
oxidation/reduction potential of the third solution system; and
when the alkaline solution is provided to the brush surface 202,
the alkaline solution reduces the zeta potential of the contaminant
particle 206. For example, the functional water reduces the
oxidation/reduction potential of the contaminant particle 206. In
one embodiment, the first cleaning sub-module 104 performs a
functional water process to reduce the oxidation/reduction
potential of the contaminant particle 206 when the fluid includes
the functional water and is provided to the brush surface 202; and
the second cleaning sub-module 106 performs a chemical process to
reduce the zeta potential when the fluid includes the alkaline
solution and is provided to the pool region 114. In one embodiment,
the brush surface 202 may be rotated in order to clean each brush
surface 202 of the brush to be cleaned.
[0029] In another embodiment, when the pool region 114 overflows
with the fluid, an overflow region of the fluid flows into the
overflow region 122 and is discharged through the overflow region
122 and the outlet region 126. In another embodiment, it can be
inferred that a profile of the device 100 is a circular shape, as
shown in FIG. 1B. In still another embodiment, the profile of the
device 100 may be a rectangular shape.
[0030] Please refer to FIGS. 5A and 5B, wherein FIG. 5A illustrates
the experiment result about the remained amount of the contaminant
particle 206 for a first group of cleaning processes, and FIG. 5B
illustrates the experiment result about the remained amount of the
contaminant particle 206 for a second group of cleaning processes.
As shown in FIG. 5A, the x axis represents the type of the cleaning
process performed on the brush surface 202, wherein the first group
of cleaning processes are denoted in the x axis, and includes the
post-CMP cleaning process (after CMP), the ultra pure water without
mega sonic process (UPW w/o MS), the ultra pure water plus mega
sonic process (UPW+MS), the H2 water plus ultra pure water without
mega sonic process (H2-UPW w/o MS) and H2 water plus ultra pure
water plus mega sonic process (H2-UPW+MS); and the y axis
represents the remained amount of the contaminant particle 206
after performing each of the processes mentioned above. According
to the experiment result in FIG. 5A, after the post-CMP cleaning
process, there are more than 20,000 contaminant particles remained
on the brush surface 202, and after cleaning the brush surface 202
by applying the ultra pure water without the mega sonic process,
there are still 5,500 contaminant particles remained on the brush
surface 202; in contrast therewith, after cleaning the brush
surface 202 by applying ultra pure water with mega sonic process,
there are 680 contaminant particles remained on the brush surface.
It can be seen that cleaning the brush surface 202 by applying the
mega sonic process may get better cleaning performance; that is to
say, cleaning the brush by applying the mega sonic process may
repel much more contaminant particle than cleaning the brush merely
with ultra pure water. On the other hand, after cleaning the brush
surface 202 by applying the functional water process (such as H2
plus ultra pure water) without mega sonic process, there are 2,600
contaminant particles remained on the brush surface; in contrast
therewith, after cleaning the brush surface 202 by applying the
functional water process (such as H2 plus ultra pure water) with
mega sonic process, there are merely less than 200 contaminant
particles remained on the brush surface; that is to say, cleaning
the brush by applying the mega sonic process may repel much more
contaminant particle than cleaning the brush merely with H2 plus
ultra pure water. According to the experiment data mentioned above,
the method of cleaning the brush surface 202 by combining the mega
sonic process with the functional water process provides the best
performance.
[0031] As shown in FIG. 5B, the x axis represents the chemical
process performed by applying the type of the fluid, wherein the
second group of cleaning processes are denoted in the x axis, and
includes the post-CMP cleaning process, and the chemical processes
performed by applying the anode water, the conventional water, the
NH4 solution and the NH4 solution plus the H2 water, respectively;
the y axis represents the amount of the contaminant particle
remained on the brush surface. FIG. 5 also shows the respective
potential of hydrogen (PH) of a solution system (such as the first
solution system, the second solution system or the third solution
system) and the respective oxidation/reduction potential (ORP) of
the contaminant particle for each of the chemical processes.
According to the experiment result in FIG. 5B, after the post-CMP
cleaning process (before the brush cleaning process), there are
above 20,000 contaminant particles 206 remained on the brush
surface 202. After cleaning the brush surface 202 by applying the
anode water, the remained amount of the contaminant particles 206
is declined to about 1,500, wherein the solution system has a first
pH equal to 2.0, and the oxidation/reduction potential of the
contaminant particle equals to 1.35V. After cleaning the brush
surface 202 by applying the conventional ultra pure water, the
remained amount of the contaminant particles 206 is declined to
about 500, the solution system has a second pH equal to 7.0, and
the oxidation/reduction potential of the contaminant particle 206
equals to 0.49V. After cleaning the brush surface 202 by applying
the NH4 solution, the remained amount of the contaminant particles
206 is declined to less than 500, the solution system has a third
pH equal to 8.5, and the oxidation/reduction potential of the
contaminant particle 206 equals to 0.31V. Further, after cleaning
the brush surface 202 by applying the NH4 solution plus the H2
water, the remained amount of the contaminant particles 206 is
declined to less than 100, the solution system has a fourth pH
equal to 8.5, and the oxidation/reduction potential of the
contaminant particle 206 equals to -0.49V. Based on the above
mentioned experiment data, the method of cleaning the brush surface
202 by combining the functional water process with the chemical
process provides an excellent performance.
[0032] Please refer to FIG. 6, which illustrates a flow chart of a
method 600 for cleaning the brush surface 202 having a
contamination 204 in accordance with an embodiment of the present
disclosure. In step 602, the mega sonic device 110 provides a
mechanical wave. In step 604, the mechanical wave strips off the
contamination 204 from the brush surface 202. In one embodiment,
the contamination 202 includes a contaminant particle 206 having a
particle surface 208, the brush surface 202 has a first surface
charge 210 thereon, the particle surface 208 has a second surface
charge 212 thereon, and the first surface charge 210 has an
electric polarity the same with that of the second surface charge
212. In order to avoid the detached contaminant particle 206
attached back to the brush surface 202, the method 600 further
includes step 606 to enhance the second surface charge 212 on the
particle surface 208, so as to reinforce the repulsive force
between the first surface charge 210 and the second surface charge
212. In step 608, the brush surface 202 is caused to have a motion.
In one embodiment, the motion is a rotation.
[0033] In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a
method for cleaning a brush surface having a contamination is
provided. The method includes steps of: providing a mechanical
wave; and stripping off the contamination from the brush surface by
the mechanical wave.
[0034] In various implementations, the contamination includes a
contaminant particle having a particle surface, the brush surface
has a first surface charge thereon, the particle surface has a
second surface charge thereon, the first surface charge has an
electric polarity the same with that of the second surface charge,
and the method further includes steps of: enhancing the second
surface charge, so that the contaminant particle is repelled from
the brush surface; and causing the brush surface to have a motion,
wherein the electric polarity is negative; and the motion includes
a rotation. In one aspect, the step of enhancing the second surface
charge on the particle surface is performed by a functional water
process. In another aspect, the step of enhancing the second
surface charge on the particle surface is performed by a chemical
process. The mechanical wave is a megasonic wave, and is applied to
the brush surface through a fluid, the fluid includes one of a
functional water and an alkaline solution; and the brush surface is
used to clean a wafer in a chemical-mechanical planarization
process.
[0035] In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, a
method for cleaning a brush surface having a first surface charge
and a contaminant particle having a particle surface having a
second surface is provided, wherein the first surface charge has an
electric polarity the same with that of the second surface charge.
The method includes the following steps: causing the second surface
charge to be enhanced, so that the contaminant particle is repelled
from the brush surface. In one aspect, the electric polarity is
negative. In another aspect, the step of enhancing the second
surface charge is performed by a functional water process. In still
another aspect, the functional water process is performed by adding
an H2 water to form a solution system for reducing a
oxidation/reduction potential of the solution system. In still
another aspect, the step of enhancing the second surface charge is
performed by a chemical process. In still another aspect, the
chemical process is performed by adding an alkaline solution to
reduce a zeta potential of the contaminant particle. In still
another aspect, the chemical process is used to facilitate a
dissociation of a functional group from the contaminant
particle.
[0036] In accordance with some embodiments of the present
disclosure, a device for cleaning a brush surface having a first
surface charge and a contaminant particle having a particle surface
having a second surface charge is provided, wherein the first
surface charge has an electric polarity the same with that of the
second surface charge. The device includes a cleaning module
configured to enhance the second surface charge on the particle
surface, so that the contaminant particle is repelled from the
brush surface. In one aspect, the device further includes a bath, a
megasonic device and a discharge unit. The bath includes a pool
region, a bottom region, an inlet region and a first wall disposed
above the inlet region, wherein the inlet region provides a fluid
to the pool region therethrough, and the fluid includes at least
one of a functional water and an alkaline solution. The megasonic
device is disposed in the bottom region, and provides a mechanical
wave. The discharge unit includes an overflow region surrounding
the first wall, a second wall surrounding the overflow region, and
an outlet region, wherein when the pool region overflows, an
overflow portion of the fluid is discharged through the overflow
region and the outlet region. In another aspect, the mechanical
wave is a megasonic wave. In still another aspect, the cleaning
module performs a functional water process to reduce a
oxidation/reduction potential of the fluid. In still another
aspect, the cleaning module performs a chemical process to reduce a
zeta potential of the contaminant particle, and the contaminant
particle is one selected from a group consisting of PSi, Si3N4,
SiO2, Al2O3, and the combination thereof. In still another aspect,
the device further includes a detector used for detecting an
electric polarity of one of the first and second surface
charges.
[0037] While the invention has been described in terms of what is
presently considered to be the most practical and preferred
embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention needs not be
limited to the disclose embodiments. Therefore, it is intended to
cover various modifications and similar arrangements included
within the spirit and scope of the appended claims, which are to be
accorded with the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all
such modifications and similar structures.
* * * * *