EV Group and Dynaloy develop complete single-wafer cleaning solution

USA: EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment, and Dynaloy, LLC, an international manufacturer of chemicals for the electronics industry and wholly owned subsidiary of Eastman Chemical Co., introduced CoatsClean.

It is an innovative single-wafer photoresist and residue removal technology designed to address thick films and difficult-to-remove material layers for the 3D-ICs/through-silicon vias (TSVs), advanced packaging, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and compound semiconductor markets.

CoatsClean provides a complete wafer cleaning solution that offers significant efficiency, performance and cost-of-ownership (CoO) advantages compared to traditional resist stripping and post-etch residue removal methods.

CoatsClean incorporates a number of key features to boost performance and productivity, as well as reduce CoO, compared to wet bench and other traditional wafer cleaning approaches. The CoatsClean process and chemical formulation are engineered to perform at higher temperatures, resulting in faster stripping rates and cycle times. This enables CoatsClean to operate as a single-wafer process for thick resist films and difficult-to-remove resists—resulting in improved performance, consistency, reproducibility and repeatability. The engineered formulation also enables selective stripping of the resist.

CoatsClean is also unique in its ability to dispense a small amount of material on the top of the wafer, and then activate the material with direct heat. This direct utilization of the material and heat dramatically reduces the strip material used.  CoatsClean uses fresh solution for each processed wafer compared to competing techniques that use an immersion bath—resulting in greater process efficiency and eliminating cross contamination.

The highly selective application of resist strip material eliminates damage to the wafer backside. The entire CoatsClean process is performed in a single bowl, which reduces tool footprint.