ASCENT White Paper

An Exploration of Contamination Types and Contamination Control Techniques Currently used in the Fabrication of Nanoelectronics

To get your own Open Access copy, please contact Paul Roseingrave:


Paul Roseingrave
ASCENT Access Coordinator
Tyndall National Institute
University College Cork
Lee Maltings complex, Dyke Parade
Cork City, T12 R5CP (IRELAND)

Ph. no.: +353 21 234 6268
e-mail: paul.roseingrave (at) tyndall.ie

Table of Contents

  • 1 – Types of Contamination
    • 1.1 – Particles – Organic/Inorganic
    • 1.2 – Metals
    • 1.3 – Airborne Molecular Contamination – AMC
  • 2 – Baseline Contamination Levels
    • 2.1 – Front End Processes (ITRS 2013)
    • 2.2 – Contamination limits for Image Sensors
    • 2.3 – Metallic contamination of UPW
    • 2.4 – Organic contamination of UPW
    • 2.5 – Particle contamination of UPW
    • 2.6 – Liquid Chemicals, Bulk and Specialty Gases
    • 2.7 – Cleanroom and AMC
  • 3 – Contamination Control
    • 3.1 – Detection of Material on a Wafer Surfaces
      • 3.1.1 – TXRF & III-V Materials
    • 3.2 – Detection of Electrical Active Defects in Wafers and Devices
      • 3.2.1 – On Wafer Surfaces
      • 3.2.2 – Electrical Test Structures
  • 4 – Control Techniques and Strategies
    • 4.1 – Wafer Cleaning
    • 4.2 – Material Assessment
    • 4.3 – Protocols
    • 4.4 – Wafer Processing
  • 5 – Detection & Analysis Techniques
    • 5.1 – TXRF (Total X-ray Fluorescence)
    • 5.2 – ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry)
    • 5.3 – SIMS/D-SIMS/TOF-SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry)
    • 5.4 – SPV (Surface PhotoVoltage)
    • 5.5 – µPCD (Microwave Photoconductive Decay)
    • 5.6 – DLTS (Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy)
    • 5.7 – Detection Limits
  • 6 – Aspects for Scaling
    • 6.1 – Contamination/Quality Control
    • 6.2 – Continued Scaling
    • 6.3 – Future Considerations
  • Glossary
  • Bibliography