Surface Cleaning for Silicon Epitaxy Using Photoexcited Fluorine Gas

MRS Online Proceedings Library volume 318, pages269–280(1993)Cite this article

Abstract

We studied surface cleaning using photoexcited fluorine gas diluted with hydrogen (UV/F2/H2). We found that UV/F2/H2 cleaning selectively removes native Si oxides from thermal oxides without etching the bulk Si. After UV/F2/H2 cleaning, hydrogen atoms terminate almost all the dangling bonds on the Si surface, and fluorine atoms terminate the few remaining bonds. UV/F2/H2 cleaning also flattens the Si surface. We applied UV/F2/H2 cleaning to Si epitaxy and obtained single-crystal Si films with preannealing and growth temperatures as low as 600° C, 150° C lower than for conventional methods. UV/F2/H2 cleaning is a good dry precleaning method for various processes that include Si epitaxy.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mayumi Shigeno for her XPS analysis and advice, Satoru Watanabe for his IR-ATR analysis, and Masahiko Imai and Takaaki Kumise for their help

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Affiliations

  1. Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., 10-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi, 243-01, Japan

    Takayuki Aoyama, Tatsuya Yamazaki & Takashi Ito

Authors
  1. Takayuki Aoyama
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  2. Tatsuya Yamazaki
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  3. Takashi Ito
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Correspondence to Takayuki Aoyama.

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Aoyama, T., Yamazaki, T. & Ito, T. Surface Cleaning for Silicon Epitaxy Using Photoexcited Fluorine Gas. MRS Online Proceedings Library 318, 269–280 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-318-269

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