A method for in-situ dry cleaning of a SiGe semiconductor surface, ex-situ degreases the Ge containing semiconductor surface and removes organic contaminants. The surface is then dosed with HF (aq) or NH.sub.4F (g) generated via NH.sub.3+NH or NF.sub.3 with H.sub.2 or H.sub.2O to remove oxygen containing contaminants. In-situ dosing of the SiGe surface with atomic H removes carbon containing contaminants.

A method of cleaning and polishing a backside surface of a semiconductor wafer is provided. The method includes placing an abrasive brush, comprising an abrasive tape wound around an outer surface of a brush member of the abrasive brush, on the backside surface of the semiconductor wafer. The method also includes rotating the brush member to polish the backside surface of the semiconductor wafer by abrasive grains formed on the abrasive tape and to clean the backside surface of the semiconductor wafer by the brush member which is not covered by the abrasive tape.

Methods of drying a semiconductor substrate may include applying a drying agent to a semiconductor substrate, where the drying agent wets the semiconductor substrate. The methods may include heating a chamber housing the semiconductor substrate to a temperature above an atmospheric pressure boiling point of the drying agent until a vapor-liquid equilibrium of the drying agent within the chamber has been reached. The methods may further include venting the chamber, where the venting vaporizes the liquid phase of the drying agent from the semiconductor substrate.

A gallium arsenide substrate which exhibits at least one surface having a surface oxide layer comprising gallium and arsenic oxides and which exhibits at least one surface having, according to an ellipsometric lateral substrate mapping with an optical surface analyzer, based on a substrate diameter of 150 mm as reference, a defect number of <6000 and/or a total defect area of less than 2 cm.sup.2, wherein a defect is defined as a continuous area of greater than 1000 m.sup.2 having a deviation from the average measurement signal in elipsometric lateral substrate mapping with an optical surface analyzer of at least 0.05%.

Disclosed is a substrate processing apparatus. The substrate processing apparatus includes a container body, and a holding member that conveys the substrate from an outside of the container body into the container body and holds the substrate inside the container body during the processing. A substrate support pin supporting a wafer and a cooling plate cooling the holding member are provided outside the container body.

A substrate processing method includes a rinsing step of supplying water of a first temperature to a surface of a silicon substrate to apply a rinsing process using the water to the silicon substrate surface, a second temperature water supplying (coating) step of supplying water of a second temperature lower than the first temperature to the silicon substrate surface after the rinsing step, and a drying step of rotating the silicon substrate after the second temperature water supplying step to spin off the water on the silicon substrate surface to a periphery of the silicon substrate and thereby dry the silicon substrate.

A side of a semiconductor wafer is cleaned in the following order: (1) executing a first cleaning step, cleaning with ozonized water, and a subsequent rinsing step, rinsing with purified water; (2) executing a second cleaning step, which includes, executing a first treatment step, including treating with ozonized water, which is followed by executing a second treatment step, treating with a hydrogen fluoride (HF)-containing liquid, where the second cleaning step may be repeated multiply; (3) executing a third cleaning step, cleaning with ozonized water, and executing a subsequent rinsing step, rinsing with purified water; and (4) executing a drying step. A preliminary cleaning step, which includes cleaning the side of the semiconductor with water, is executed directly before the first cleaning step so that the side of the semiconductor wafer is still wet while the first cleaning step commences.

An electronic component cleaning method for performing cleaning on a surface of a wafer includes: a wet cleaning process of performing wet cleaning on the surface of the wafer by hydrogen water and pure water; a dry cleaning process of performing dry cleaning on the surface of an electronic component by atmospheric-pressure plasma after the wet cleaning; and a hydrogen water treatment process of performing cleaning on the surface of the wafer using hydrogen water obtained by dissolving hydrogen gas into water, after the dry cleaning process.

A wafer processing method and system are provided. The wafer processing system includes an isopropyl alcohol (IPA) evaporation system, an IPA condensation system, and a process chamber. The IPA evaporation system evaporates liquid IPA into IPA vapor. The IPA condensation system condenses a portion of the IPA vapor into distilled high purity liquid IPA. The process chamber rinses a semiconductor wafer in the process chamber using the distilled high purity liquid IPA, and displaces the distilled high purity liquid IPA using a remaining portion of the IPA vapor to dry the semiconductor wafer.

A substrate processing method includes: performing a backside film forming operation that forms a backside film on a back surface of a substrate, wherein the substrate includes a front surface on which a pattern or device structure is formed and the back surface opposite to the front surface, and wherein the backside film is configured to generate stress on the back surface of the substrate upon exposure; and performing an exposing operation that exposes at least a part of the backside film to reduce warpage of the substrate after the backside film forming operation.