Low-temperature in-situ dry cleaning process for semiconductor wafers

Abstract

Abstract A low-temperature (650° C. to 800° C.) in-situ dry cleaning process (FIG. 2) for removing native oxide (and other contaminants) from a semiconductor surface can be used with either multi-wafer or single-wafer semiconductor device manufacturing reactors. A wafer is contacted with a dry cleaning mixture of germane GeH 4 and hydrogen gas (51), such that the germane:hydrogen flow ratio is less than about 0.15:12000 sccm. The dry cleaning mixture can include a halogen-containing gas (such as HCl or HBr) (52, 54) to enhance cleaning of metallic contaminants, and/or anhydrous HF gas (53, 54) to further lower the process temperature. The dry cleaning process can be achieved by introducing some or all of the hydrogen and/or an inert gas as a remote plasma. The dry cleaning process is adaptable as a precleaning step for multiprocessing methodologies that, during transitions between process steps, reduce thermal cycling (FIGS. 3c-3e) by reducing wafer temperature only to an idle temperature (350° C.), and by reducing vacuum cycling by maintaining flow rates for constant gases (FIG. 3c), thereby substantially reducing thermal stress and adsorption of residual impurities, while limiting dopant redistribution.

Inventors

• 👤 Mehrdad M. Moslehi

Bibliographic Details