Supercritical fluids (SF) have been used in a wide variety of applications:
in industrial processes, analytical, waste detoxification, etc. Recently,
its usefulness extends to the semiconductor industry. Researches have shown
that supercritical CO2 (SCCO2) can be used to remove
photoresists and significantly reduce the amount of waste from solvents in
comparison to conventional stripping techniques. SF will also find its
usefulness in cleaning high aspect ratio vias and deep trenches as
semiconductor features shrink to submicron levels. We will report here the
use of supercritical CO2 treatments in extraction of porogens
from a nanohybrid film fabricated via templated-porogen approach. Its use as
a medium to repair the damage in porous films from plasma ashing will also
be presented. The ability to tune the solvation and diffusion power of
SCCO2 and to swell the film matrix make it a good medium for
silylation to restore hydrophobicity and functionalize the film.