Industry Context for Semiconductor Wet Etch and Surface Preparation

The semiconductor industry is undergoing a transition driven by end use markets. In recent years, mobile devices have been the leading generator of growth. Now the connection of various products and machines to the internet is generating new and extensive demands for memory (storage of the data), logic (intelligent processing of the data including machine learning), and sensing (e.g., image sensors generating visual data). Thus the versatile planar MOS transistor based semiconductor technology has diverged into various specialized and complex branches, with each technology type using unique approaches to address scaling challenges. These lead to specific requirements for semiconductor wafer surface preparation. This paper will review the high level industry trends and how they affect surface preparation specifically.