We have had the same problem in the past. We've tried different solvents and solutions (e.g. Acetone, IPA, RCA), but none of these seemed to help. Also an oxygen-plasma clean did not give the desired result. The problem seems to sit in the fact that the residu seems to be a mixture of organic-residue and silicon-particles. We eventually solved the problem by putting the chips for a couple of minutes in a KOH-solution (approx. 25wt%) at aproximately 60?C. The wafers were then gently rinsed in DI-water, followed by and IPA-rinse (which facilitates drying). Of course, the usage of a KOH-solution is only possible if your devices do not have any exposed silicon, or other layers that are not KOH-resistant (e.g. Al, Ti). Succes. Jason ___________________________________________________________ Jason Viotty Senior Process Engineer C2V http://www.c2v.nl -----Original Message----- From: Jen Robertson [mailto:drmems@yahoo.com] Sent: zaterdag 20 december 2003 2:05 To: mems-talk@memsnet.org Subject: [mems-talk] cleaning small chips Hi- Is there a good way to clean small (<5mm square) silicon chips? Our chips have lots of visiable residues after the dicing process, either from the dicing tapes or wafer dusts. We have tried soaking in many different solvents but cannot seem to get rid of them. These chips have fragile MEMS structures on them and will break if we use ultrasonic agitation. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Jen --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now _______________________________________________ MEMS-talk@memsnet.org mailing list: to unsubscribe or change your list options, visit http://mail.mems-exchange.org/mailman/listinfo/mems-talk Hosted by the MEMS Exchange, providers of MEMS processing services. Visit us at http://www.memsnet.org/