UVFAB launches HELIOS-1200 300mm-wafer UV-ozone cleaning and surface treatment system

UVFAB Systems Inc of Walnut Creek, CA, USA, which manufactures ultraviolet (UV) and ozone surface treatment equipment, has launched the Model HELIOS-1200 as the second product in its HELIOS series of UV-ozone cleaning systems.

Designed to be very compact, lightweight and competitively priced, the HELIOS-1200 includes a high-intensity UV grid lamp for increased uniformity as well as a digital process timer that allows more accurate control over the process time. The drawer loading sample stage can accommodate up to 12”x12” substrates, one 300mm wafer, one 200mm wafer or four 100mm wafers using prefabricated substrate holders. For maintenance purposes, the system also comes with a built-in hour-counter to keep track of UV lamp life-time.

UV ozone cleaning is a photo-sensitized oxidation process in which the contaminant molecules of photo-resists, resins, human skin oil, cleaning solvent residues, silicone oils and flux are excited and/or dissociated by the absorption of short-wavelength UV radiation. Atomic oxygen is simultaneously generated when molecular oxygen and ozone are dissociated by 185nm and 254nm UV wavelengths, respectively. The 254nm UV radiation is absorbed by most hydrocarbons and also by ozone. The products of this excitation of contaminant molecules react with atomic oxygen to form simpler, volatile molecules, which desorbs from the surface. Therefore, when both UV wavelengths are present, atomic oxygen is continuously generated and ozone is continually formed and destroyed.

Using a UV-ozone cleaner, near atomically clean surfaces can be achieved in minutes without any damage to devices. This fast method of obtaining ultra-clean surfaces free of organic contaminants on most substrates - such as quartz, silicon, gold, nickel, aluminium, gallium arsenide (GaAs), alumina, glass slides, etc - can easily be achieved by utilizing a well-designed UV-ozone cleaning system, says UVFAB.

Tags: Photoresist removal Wafer cleaning system

Visit: www.uvfab.com