Challenges and solutions for post-CMP cleaning at device and interconnect levels

Post-CMP cleaning is a crucial step to eliminate the residual particles, organic residues, foreign materials, metallic impurities, etc., from the wafer surfaces. As post-CMP cleaning technology has grown by leaps and bounds over the past several decades, traditional cleaning solutions (SC-1, SC-2, SPM, and DHF) have been modified to meet the stringent requirements for the level of acceptable defects, and many alternatives have been developed so far. Recent developments of post-CMP cleaning solutions for FEOL, MOL, and BEOL applications are summarized in this chapter. The challenges and future research directions related to post-CMP cleaning solutions and the experimental techniques to evaluate post-CMP cleaning formulations are highlighted.