Environmentally friendly cleaning solvents for lithography

The main objective of this project is to evaluate an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional petroleum-based solvents in the semiconductor industry. In the manufacture of microchips, photolithographic processes are used to create tiny structures on so-called wafers. Resists are applied, exposed and developed. After this process, the residues of the photoresist and its mixtures must be completely removed in order to obtain high-purity components and materials (removal of the photoresist). The cleaning formulations used to date for these microelectronics processes are largely based on solvents and contain aggressive chemical additives such as NMP. They often require additional rinsing and cleaning steps as well as extensive wastewater treatment. These often do not meet the requirements for sustainable chemistry.

Together with the project partner intelligent fluids, cleaning chemicals are now to be developed and at the same time the life cycle assessment of the phase fluid technology is to be optimized so that it can be used in industrial plants.