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New integrated circuit cleaning technique
A new integrated circuit cleaning technique developed by Dennis Hess, a chemical engineering professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The new technique streamlines the integrated circuits (ICs) (miniature assemblies of electronic components vital to the electronics industry) fabrication process and makes it more environmentally friendly. Pictured here is graduate student Tazrien Kamal, who is showing Hess a treated sample in his lab.
In order to function properly ICs must be ultraclean, therefore, production of ICs is done in an ultraclean environment called a "clean room." There are about 400 processing steps involved in making a typical IC. Fifty to 60 of these steps involve cleaning the various surfaces involved in the process. Most of the cleaning is done using liquids--usually acids and bases--and time must be allowed for drying. However, Hess' new technique eliminates the drying step, streamlining the process and making it more environmentally friendly than the methods currently used because it uses water instead of toxic and corrosive chemicals.
Hess heats water to temperatures above the boiling point, while simultaneously adding pressure to keep the water in the liquid phase. After cleaning is complete, Hess reduces the pressure and flashes the liquid off the surface. The next step for Hess will be collaboration with IC equipment and device manufacturers to try out his method on actual IC wafers. [This research was funded in part by a grant from the Natoinal Science Foundation.] (Year of image: 2000)
Credit: Photo by Sue Clites
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