The topics to be addressed include, but are not limited to:

· Fundamentals of contaminants on surfaces and contamination-substrate interactions.

· Removal of contaminants in all steps of micro-, nano-electronics applications and 3D-integration.

· Surface chemistry, passivation, conditioning and characterization of group IV and III/V materials (Si, Ge, SiGe, SiC, InP, GaAs and InGaAs) for sensitive FEOL processes (high-k-metal gate stacks dielectrics, Ge surfaces, III-V, CVD and MBE- epitaxy, ALD, SAM deposition).

· Post-CMP clean for advanced Logic, Memory and 3D-applications.

· Cleaning and advanced etching schemes in advanced RMG and work function tuning.

· Surface processing in high-aspect ratio trenches and vias.

· Surface processing and drying of flexible and fragile high aspect ratio topography: leaning, sticking, collapse.

· Chemical and physical cleaning in liquid, gaseous, vapour, remote plasma and supercritical fluids (e.g. scCO2).

· Cleaning and surface preparation for novel materials for Qubits (quantum computing) and advanced memory applications (DRAM, Flash memory, PCM, RRAM, MRAM, STT, ...:): magnetic materials, OTS-materials, topological insulators,…

· BEOL strip and cleans, including corrosion issues of aggressively scaled interconnect schemes

· Trade-offs between cleaning performance, substrate damage and etching.

· Contamination/particle control and its relation with process yield or performance.

· Importance of ambient control during fabrication, transport or storage for wafer surface cleanliness.

· Yield enhancement cleans: wafer backside, bevel.

· Removal of (modified) photo resist, post etch residues and polymers.

· Analytical methods, process and contamination diagnostics, in-situ monitoring and process control.

· General issues in ultra-clean technology, ultra-pure materials and supply systems.

· Safety, environmentally friendly technologies and mass balance equations.

· Challenges of cleaning EUV-masks.

· Transfer, cleaning and surface preparation of 2D-materials (graphene, WS2, MoS2, WSe2, ...).

· Surface functionalization, e.g. based on SAMs or other methods.

· Surfaces for integrated bio-electronic sensors.

· Surface preparation and functionalization for integrated microfluidic bio-sensor devices:

including immobilization of bio-molecules on sensor substrates.

· Cleaning and surface preparation for photovoltaic applications, M- and N-EMS. 

“The list is by no means meant to be exhaustive. Use it as a source of inspiration and not as a tool of limitation.”