THEORETICAL-STUDY OF MOLECULAR CONTAMINATION ON SILICON-WAFERS - INTERACTIONS BETWEEN MOLECULAR CONTAMINANTS AND THE SILICON SURFACE

Molecular contamination on silicon wafers is mainly determined by the gas phase concentrations of the contaminants, the adsorption energy of the molecules on the surface, and their removal rate. In this paper, a potential energy function is developed to describe interactions betw een adsorbed molecules and solid surfaces. ignoring possible chemical reactions at the interface, the development is based on a combination of the Pauli repulsion, the dispersion attraction, and the Coulomb int eraction between real and image charges. This potential function will be used to predict adsorption energies of various organic/inorganic mo lecules, including oxygen, halogens, aliphatic hydrocarbons, acids, an d inorganic carbon-containing compounds on silicon wafer surfaces.