CLEANING OF SILICON SURFACES BY NF3-ADDED HYDROGEN AND WATER-VAPOR PLASMA DOWNSTREAM TREATMENT

Native oxide was removed from silicon surfaces by NF3-added hydrogen a nd water-vapor plasma downstream treatment. It took 45 s to remove nat ive oxide from a 6-inch silicon wafer. Fourier transform infrared atte nuated total reflection (FT-IR ATR) measurement revealed that the surf ace roughness after the downstream treatment was the same as that afte r wet cleaning with 2% HF solution. A silicon epitaxial layer was grow n on the surface cleaned by the downstream treatment. Although process temperature was as low as 100 degrees C, the present downstream treat ment induced the same effect as in situ hydrogen annealing.