Laser-induced particle removal from silicon wafers

The cleaning of silicon surfaces from submicron dust particles has been studied by means of the "Steam Laser Cleaning" (SLC) process and compared to "Dry Laser Cleaning" (DLC) which is used nowadays in many applications. For SLC a thin liquid layer (e.g. a water-alcohol mixture) is condensed onto the substrate, and is subsequently evaporated by irradiating the surface with a short laser pulse. The DLC process, on the other hand, only relies on the laser pulse, without application of a vapor jet. We have systematically investigated the efficiency of these two processes for the removal of well-characterized polymer, silica and alumina particles of various sizes down to 60 nm in diameter, and have also studied the influence of light wavelength and laser pulse duration for nanosecond and picosecond pulses. The results demonstrate that for the gentle cleaning of silicon wafers SLC is a very efficient method and is superior to DLC. An effect which so far has only rarely been taken into account for laser cleaning is the field enhancement under the particles, which can give rise to serious surface damage, in particular when cleaning pulses in the picosecond and femtosecond range in the DLC are applied.