We describe a study on the effect of the electrostatic nature in silica particles on the post CMP cleaning behavior. A fall-off for the zeta potential of silica particles is observed as the pH of dip solutions is increased. In this study, we also observed that particle counts on the SiO 2 and the Si 3N 4 dielectric films had a similar dependence on the pH. Furthermore, we confirmed that surface hardness of the wafer is an important factor for particles physically embedded in different dielectric materials during and after the CMP process. The nanoscale surface hardness of dielectric films was measured by the nanoindentation technique. Experimental results showed that particles had difficulty attaching to a harder surface of the dielectric film.