Abstract: The invention provides alkaline compositions useful in the microelectronics industry for stripping or cleaning semiconductor wafer substrates by removing photoresist residues and other unwanted contaminants. The compositions contain (a) one or more bases and (b) one or more metal corrosion inhibiting metal halides of the formula: WzMXy where M is a metal selected from the group Si, Ge, Sn, Pt, P, B, Au, Ir, Os, Cr, Ti, Zr, Rh, Ru, and Sb; X is a halide selected from F, Cl, Br and I; W is selected from H, to an alkali or alkaline earth metal, and a metal ion-free hydroxide base moiety; y is a numeral of from 4 to 6 depending on the metal halide; and z is a numeral of 1, 2 or 3.

Abstract: Aqueous, silicate free, cleaning compositions of about pH 9 or below and method of using the cleaning compositions for cleaning microelectronic substrates, which compositions are able to essentially completely clean such substrates and produce essentially no metal corrosion of the metal elements of such substrates. The aqueous cleaning compositions of this invention have (a) water, (b) at least one of ammonium and quaternary ammonium ions and (c) at least one of hypophosphite (H2PO2?) and/or phosphite (HPO32?) ions. The cleaning compositions also may contain fluoride ions. Optionally, the composition may contain other components such as organic solvents, oxidizing agent, surfactants, corrosion inhibitors and metal complexing agents.