ACCELERATION OF ORGANIC CONTAMINANT ADSORPTION ONTO SILICON SURFACES IN THE PRESENCE OF RESIDUAL FLUORINE

The influence of fluorine atoms remaining after HF treatment on the ad sorption of organic contaminants onto the surface of silicon wafers wa s investigated by analyzing the organic contaminants with gas chromato graphy-mass spectrometry following thermodesorption (TD-GC/MS), and th e surface composition with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It has been found that residual fluorine on silicon surfaces after cleani ng of the silicon wafers with either aqueous HF or anhydrous HF accele rates the adsorption of organic contamination onto the silicon surface s. This would be due to the electrostatic force of attraction between the polar groups of organic compounds and the residual fluorine on the silicon surface.