| 摘要 |
A wafer cleaning process is disclosed for quenching etch reactions while rinsing etch reactants and etch products from the wafer. Holes are etched through an insulating layer by reactive ion etch, for example. The holes might comprise contact openings over a semiconductor substrate, or vias through insulating layers between metal lines. An organic or polymer residue left in the holes is cleaned by a wet process. The cleaning process continues to attack sidewalls of the holes, undesirably widening them. The wafer is therefore rinsed with a rinse agent below 0° C., thermally quenching further etching of the sidewalls and affording greater control over the hole dimensions. At the same time, the rinse agent allows relatively rapid diffusion of etchants and etch products from narrow and deep openings. An exemplary rinse agent for such low temperature rinsing is dilute ethylene glycol (C2H6O2).
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