Product Lineup of UV-Ozone Cleaners
Samco offers multiple UV-Ozone cleaners for R&D and production. Our systems are equipped with Stage Heating and Ozone Generator to achieve superior process performance compared to conventional UV-Ozone cleaners.
Compact tabletop UV-ozone cleaners are useful for sample preparation at space-limited lab facilities. Our open-load UV-ozone systems are capable of processing 300 mm wafers, and the tools have advantages of low physical ion and charging damage over general plasma cleaning. For production customers, cassette-to-cassette systems are available.
Tabletop UV-Ozone Cleaners
The UV-1, UV-2 and UV-300 are compact and simple UV-ozone cleaners that can accommodate a variety of substrate shapes and sizes. The small-footprint systems are easy to operate, and use a unique combination of ultraviolet radiation, ozone and heat to gently, yet effectively, remove organic materials from a variety of substrates including silicon, GaAs, sapphire, metals, ceramics, quartz and glass.
The systems are well suited for a variety of applications such as substrate cleaning, photoresist descumming, wettability improvement, surface modification and UV curing. By operating at atmospheric pressure the UV-1, UV-2 and UV-300 eliminate the need for a cumbersome, high-maintenance, vacuum system, and will not damage delicate electronic devices.
Open-load UV-Ozone Cleaners
The UV-300H is a 300 mm UV-Ozone system that includes all the features of the table-top systems. Substrates are loaded into the system through a sliding drawer, and the gap between the stage and ozone manifold is manually adjustable from 1 to 11 mm to allow optimization of a process.
This high-performance unit provides photoresist ashing rates of up to 500 nm/min, and includes numerous safety features to protect the operator and the system. The UV-300H operates at atmospheric pressure and does not require a separate vacuum system.
Atmospheric Cassette UV-Ozone Cleaners
As throughput needs increase, the UV-300HC is a fully automated cassette system that includes a UV-Ozone chamber with a 280 mm stage, Atmospheric Robot, and two cassettes. The cassettes can be configured for single wafer up to 200mm or batch operation using trays. Like the UV-300H the gap between the stage and ozone manifold is manually adjustable from 1 to 11 mm to allow optimization of a process.
Options include a cooling and heating stage to increase throughput.
Process Examples
Samco UV-Ozone cleaners can be used for many types of applications in device fabrication, material science, biochemistry and molecular biology research.
- surface cleaning
- lead frame and bond pad cleaning for device packaging
- surface modification
- surface activation
- wettability modulation
- adhesion improvement
- surface oxidation (thin oxidized layer deposition)
- organic contamination removal
- photoresist ashing
- UV curing, outgassing and hardbaking of photoresist
- photoresist descum
- cleaning of AFM tips
- surface cleaning of Quartz Crystal Micro-balance (QCM) sensors
- cleaning of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) chips
- UV crosslinking of polymers and photoresist
Long-term Stable Surface Modification of Polymers by UV-Ozone
Polymer microfluidics are emerging technologies which enable quick and low-cost diagnostics. Polymer materials used for the disposable device fabrication are generally hydrophobic, and surface treatment is required for stable flow in nano-scale channels.
Oxygen plasma is widely used for wettability improvement of materials, but it is known that hydrophobic recovery is seen quickly after the plasma treatment. Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COP) samples were processed in an oxygen plasma or UV-ozone treatment, and then water contact angle was measured to analyze wettability after storage for up to 180 days.
While the COP samples processed in oxygen plasma treatment showed significant hydrophobic recovery, the samples processed in UV-Ozone treatment with stage heating and additional ozone flow showed stable hydrophilic surfaces for 180 days. This result indicates that stage heating and high ozone concentration by additional ozone flow, which are key features of Samco UV-Ozone cleaners, are effective for long-term stable surface modification of polymers.
Not only COP, we also have process knowledge on long-term stable wettability modulation of other polymers such as PMMA, COC and PEEK, which are common materials for microfluidics and medical devices. Please contact us for more details on our process capabilities.
Contact angle transition of COP samples after oxygen plasma or UV-Ozone treatment
Specification Chart
| Table-top UV-Ozone Cleaners | Open-load UV-Ozone Cleaners | Atmospheric Cassette UV-Ozone Cleaners | |
| Loading | Manual Load | Double Cassettes for High Throughput | |
| Sample Size | 150/200/300 mm | Up to 300 mm | Up to 240 mm |
| Stage Heating | Ambient up to 300°C | ||
| System Features |
Ozone Generator for Higher Ozone Concentration Operation at Atmospheric Pressure Ozone Scrubber Automatic One-button Operation |
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| Options | UL Certification and CE Mark | Rotating Stage | Heating and Cooling Stages before/after UV-Ozone Treatment |
| Applications |
Photoresist ashing Gentle surface modification of various materials Descumming photoresist and E-beam resist Surface cleaning before packaging Ink removal Failure Analysis |
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System Features
Stage Heating & Ozone Generator
Stage heating and additional ozone by an ozone generator improves etch rate of photoresist.
Rotating Stage
Rotating stage will enhance etch uniformity over the substrates.
Double Cassettes
Double cassettes will improve process throughput.
Testimonial
Samco UV-Ozone Cleaners are used for device fabrication and sample preparation at state-of-the-art nanofabrication facilities including
Cornel University
Georgia Tech
Nanyang Technological University
