Contamination Control in Ion Implantation

The investigation and elimination or control of metallic contamination in ion implanters has been a leading, continuous effort at implanter OEMs and in fabs/IDMs alike. Much of the efforts have been in the area of control of sputtering through material and geometry changes in apertures, beamline and target chamber components. In this paper, we will focus on an area that has not, heretofore, been fully investigated or controlled. This is the area of lubricants and internal and external support material such as selected cleaning media. Some of these materials are designated for internal use (beamline/vacuum) only while others are for internal and/or external use. Many applications for selected greases, for example, are designated for or are used for platens, implant disks/wheels and for wafer handling components. We will present data from popular lubricants (to be unnamed) used worldwide in ion implanters. This paper will review elements of concern in many lubricants that should be tracked and monitored by all fabs. Proper understanding of the characteristics, risks and the control of these potential contaminants can provide for rapid return to full process capability following major PMs or parts changes. Using VPD-ICPMS, Glow Discharge Mass Spectrometry and Ion Chromatography (IC) data, we will review the typical cleaning results and correlation to "on wafer" contamination by elements of concern-and by some elements that are otherwise barred from the fab.