Plasma Stripper

CIF's plasma stripping systems utilize Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) excitation technology to deliver isotropic uniform plasma generation, enabling gentle and efficient treatment of various substrates and workpieces with complex 3D irregular structures. It can strip photoresist efficiently and remove MEMS sacrificial layers, while performing surface cleaning and activation for wafers, chips, epitaxial wafers and circuit boards. Suitable for university research labs, semiconductor and microelectronics laboratories, it serves as core process equipment for semiconductor and MEMS fabrication.

Applications

CIF's plasma strippers offer a high price-performance ratio, low operating costs, and easy maintenance, making them popular in universities, research institutes, and microelectronics and semiconductor labs for their processing capabilities.

Photoresist removal. Stripping of polymers, metals, and mask materials prior to or following dry and wet etching processes;

Surface pretreatment. Cleaning and surface activation of wafers, chips, epitaxial wafers, printed circuit boards, and related substrates;

Specialized process cleaning. Removal of sacrificial layers in MEMS fabrication and elimination of organic contaminants, such as epoxy residues, from material surfaces.

Working Principle of Plasma Stripper

The principle of plasma stripper is to utilize the high reactivity of plasma to achieve efficient material removal. The operational process involves introducing process gases, such as oxygen, into a vacuum reaction chamber, where they are ionized by radio frequency or microwave energy to generate plasma containing highly reactive species, including oxygen radicals. These reactive species initiate oxidation reactions with photoresist-primarily composed of hydrocarbon-based organic compounds-converting it into volatile byproducts such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. These gaseous products are subsequently removed via the vacuum system, enabling complete and residue-free cleaning. To further enhance process performance, nitrogen or hydrogen can be introduced into the gas mixture to improve the removal efficiency of specific residual materials. Compared to conventional wet chemical photoresist removal techniques, this dry etching method offers superior photoresist removal efficiency while eliminating the need for large quantities of chemical solvents, thus providing significant environmental and safety advantages.

Function & Features

Intelligent Control and Humanized Operation

± The system is equipped with a 7-inch color touchscreen and a bilingual interactive interface available in both Chinese and English, enabling intuitive and user-friendly operation.

± The entire photoresist removal process is managed by a PLC-based industrial control system, supporting both manual and fully automatic operating modes.

± It features 20 programmable process recipes with capabilities for process data storage, export, and full traceability, ensuring compliance with quality management requirements.

Precision Process and Gas Control System

± Intelligent vacuum control enables precise regulation of vacuum levels through adjustment of gas flow or chamber pressure, delivering flexible and adaptive process control.

± The system is equipped with corrosion-resistant mass flow controllers to ensure high- accuracy gas delivery. A dual-gas configuration is provided as standard, with optional multi-gas configurations available to support various process gases, including oxygen, argon, nitrogen, carbon tetrafluoride, and hydrogen.

± The uniform gas inlet design employs a multi-channel distribution system, effectively overcoming the non-uniform gas dispersion commonly associated with traditional single-channel inlets, thereby ensuring consistent and homogeneous processing results.

± Cleanliness Assurance.

± A HEPA high-efficiency filtration system, combined with gas backfilling and purging functions, is integrated to effectively prevent secondary contamination and maintain a clean processing environment.

Core Structure and Materials

± The vacuum chamber is constructed from high-purity quartz, while the entire vacuum piping system is fabricated from 316 stainless steel, offering excellent corrosion resistance and ensuring a pollution-free process environment.

± Optional quartz boats are available, making the system particularly suitable for wafer photoresist removal applications.

Safety Protection

± Multiple safety mechanisms are incorporated, including automatic power cutoff upon chamber door opening and controlled pressure release functionality.

± Real-time operational status indicators are provided for both running and standby states, ensuring personnel safety and protection of processed samples.

Technical Specification