As lead times in the global equipment supply chain increase, ACM Research is expanding its cleaning equipment portfolio with new post-CMP cleaning products.

ACM Research announced on the 10th that it is launching a new post-CMP equipment.

The new equipment is ACM’s first post-CMP equipment and is designed for the cleaning step following the chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process in the high-quality substrate manufacturing process. The new product can be used in the 6-inch and 8-inch silicon carbide (SiC) wafer manufacturing process and the 8-inch and 12-inch silicon wafer manufacturing process, the company said.

Additionally, the equipment is available in WIDO (wet-in dry-out) and DIDO (dry-in dry-out) configurations with two, four, and six chambers, and delivers a throughput capacity of up to 60 wafers per hour (WPH).

After the CMP step, a cleaning process using diluted chemical solvents at low temperatures is required to reduce the number of particles. ACM's post-CMP cleaning equipment is available in a variety of configurations based on its own advanced cleaning technology, 'Smart Megasonix,' ACM emphasized.

For example, the new WIDO online pre-clean tool can be installed directly into existing CMP tools. The wafers are transferred to two scrubbing chambers where they are treated on the front, back, and bevel edges using chemicals and cold deionized water (CDIW) simultaneously. The wafers are then transferred to two or four cleaning chambers where they are cleaned using a variety of chemicals and CDIW. The process is completed by nitrogen (N2) drying and spin-drying, which reduces the number of particles larger than 37 nm to less than 15 and the number of particles larger than 28 nm to 20 to 25, while controlling metal contamination to less than 1E+8 (atoms per square centimeter). A WIDO pre-clean tool with four chambers can provide a yield of up to 35 WPH.

The new DIDO pre-cleaner is a standalone tool with four load ports and a smaller footprint than the WIDO pre-cleaner, making it ideal for companies that have an integrated process where the clean chamber is built into the CMP platform to allow the wafer to be unloaded dry. In this configuration, wafers are transported into the pre-cleaner through the load ports and then processed in the same manner as in the WIDO pre-cleaner. The DIDO pre-cleaner is available in four- or six-chamber configurations, with two brushes and two clean chambers, or two brushes and four clean chambers. Based on a 6-chamber configuration, the DIDO pre-cleaning equipment provides a throughput of 60 WPH while achieving the same metal contamination cleaning effect as the WIDO pre-cleaning equipment.

The third configuration is the WIDO offline pre-clean tool, which is suitable when footprint is a critical consideration. In this configuration, wet wafers transferred from the CMP tool are passed through a DIW bath and then manually transferred to the WIDO offline pre-clean tool, which utilizes the same cleaning process to achieve the same particle removal performance and throughput of up to 60 WPH.

David Wang, CEO of ACM, said of the tool launch, “With lead times in the global equipment supply chain continuing to increase, this is an opportunity for ACM to enter the post-CMP cleaning market by leveraging our extensive experience and technologies in semiconductor cleaning process technologies, and further expand our cleaning equipment portfolio.” He added, “This post-CMP cleaning tool will provide customers with a stable, reliable and cost-effective solution with a shorter-than-average lead time, contributing to alleviating the semiconductor supply shortage.”

Meanwhile, ACM develops, manufactures and sells semiconductor process equipment for single wafer or batch wet cleaning, and provides high-performance, cost-effective, customized process solutions that semiconductor manufacturers can use in numerous manufacturing steps to improve productivity and product yield.