Improved epitaxial quality following etch damage removal on plasma etched silicon surfaces

摘要

The quality of epitaxial growth on surfaces subject to plasma etching can be degraded due to damage to the silicon surface. The aim of this study is to obtain improvements in epitaxial quality by the use of an Etch Damage Removal (EDR) treatment following plasma each or Reactive Ion Etch (RIE) stages in wafer processing. Optical and electron microscopy observations suggest increased defect density in epitaxial layers grown following some RIE processes, while wet etching or RIE + EDR will allow the growth of high quality epitaxial layers.