PLASMA PROCESS-INDUCED SURFACE DAMAGE REMOVAL

As device geometries continue to shrink below 0.5 mu m, previously acc eptable levels of silicon contamination and lattice damage from energe tic ion bombardment in reactive ion etchers are beginning to affect de vice performance and reliability through increased junction leakage an d higher contact resistance. The Applied Materials remote plasma sourc e (RPS), an isotropic chemical downstream etcher, was used to remove s urface residues, impurity penetration, and silicon lattice damage to r ecover a device quality surface. Several diagnostic methods, including transmission electron microscopy, Rutherford backscattering, and x-ra y photoelectron spectroscopy, are used to investigate the effectivenes s of a controlled silicon etch process in the RPS chamber. (C) 1998 Am erican Vacuum Society.