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Cost-effective cleaning and high-quality thin gate oxides |
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by M. M. Heyns, T. Bearda, I. Cornelissen, S. DeGendt, R. Degraeve, G. Groeseneken, C. Kenens, D. M. Knotter, L. M. Loewenstein, P. W. Mertens, S. Mertens, M. Meuris, T. Nigam, M. Schaekers, I. Teerlinck, W. Vandervorst, R. Vos, K. Wolke
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Some recent findings in the area of wafer cleaning and thin oxide properties are presented in this paper. Results are shown for a practical implementation of a simplified cleaning concept that combines excellent performance in terms of metal and particle removal with low chemical and DI-water consumption. The effect of organic contamination on ultrathin gate-oxide integrity is illustrated, and the feasibility of using ozonated DI water as an organic removal step is discussed. Metal outplating from HF and HF/HCl solutions is investigated. Also, the final rinsing step is critically evaluated. It is demonstrated that Si surface roughness without the presence of metal contaminants does not degrade gate-oxide integrity. Finally, some critical remarks on the reliability measurements for ultrathin gate oxides are given; it is shown that erroneous conclusions can be drawn from constant-current charge-to-breakdown measurements. |
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| Related Subjects: Chemistry and chemical engineering; Contamination; Materials technology; Physical chemistry; Process control and development; Reliability; Semiconductor technology; Silicon; Silicon dioxide; Surface science |
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