REACTIONS ON SI(100) AND CHEMICAL OXIDE SURFACES IN DISSOLVED-OXYGEN CONTROLLED DEIONIZED WATER

This paper discusses the characteristics of Si and chemical oxide surf aces rinsed with deionized (DI) water with dissolved oxygen (DO) conce ntration ranging from 0.08 ppm to 2.0 ppm, controlled by N-2 bubbling, at temperatures ranging from 23 degrees C to 80 degrees C. From the a spect of electrochemistry, it is shown that the surface condition is d etermined by the balance of the simple reactions of oxidation and oxid e etching, which proceed spontaneously and simultaneously on Si and ch emical oxide surfaces. When the DO controlled DI water is used for rin sing after diluted HF (DHF) dipping before gate oxidation, the breakdo wn characteristics show no differences for different DI water conditio ns. Such surface sensitive control using DO controlled DI water, howev er, is thought to have other potential applications to surface treatme nt processes.