US 11,756,784 B2
Methods for aluminum oxide surface recovery
Carmen Leal Cervantes, Mountain View, CA (US); Alexander Jansen, San Jose, CA (US); and Xiangjin Xie, Fremont, CA (US)
Assigned to APPLIED MATERIALS, INC., Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed by APPLIED MATERIALS, INC., Santa Clara, CA (US)
Filed on Jul. 5, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/857,361.
Application 17/857,361 is a division of application No. 16/906,999, filed on Jun. 19, 2020, granted, now 11,443,936.
Prior Publication US 2022/0336207 A1, Oct. 20, 2022
Int. Cl. H01L 21/02 (2006.01)
CPC H01L 21/02043 (2013.01) 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of cleaning a surface of a substrate, comprising:
applying an alcohol treatment on a surface of the substrate, the alcohol treatment configured to provide surface reduction of a first metal oxide layer from an underlying metal layer on the substrate; and
applying a water treatment to the surface of the substrate simultaneously with the alcohol treatment, the water treatment configured to remove alcohol from the alcohol treatment from a second metal oxide layer different from the first metal oxide layer, wherein the second metal oxide layer separates a first low-k dielectric layer from a second low-k dielectric layer on the substrate.