Advanced photo resist removal using O3 and moist UPW in semiconductor production

The removal of organic contamination and photo resist with sulfuric acid based mixtures is a well established but expensive process step in S/C processing. As a low cost alternative Ozone dissolved in UPW (Ultra Pure Water) has been found unsatisfactory due to limited availability of reactive O 3 at the wafer surface. The current work shows the feasibility of stripping photo resist in moist ozone environments in an open tank system using the Barracuda® module, among mass production conditions.