Interfacial characterization of metal deposited silicon wafer surfaces

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:466478

Chyan, O; Chen, Jin-Jian; Chien, Hsu Y; Wu, Jun-Jun ^[1]

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1. Univ. of North Texas, Denton, TX (United States); and others

The presence of trace quantities of metal contaminants on silicon substrates is well known to have catastrophic effects on both devices performance and process yield in the VLSI and ULSI device production. This paper focuses on the morphological and kinetic aspects of metal ions interactions with HF-treated silicon wafer surfaces using several surface characterization tools, including AFM, contact angle, TXRF and FTIR. Our experimental results indicate HF treated silicon substrate is capable of sustaining electroless plating of several metals in HF solution. For instance, AFM images reveal manometer size Cu nuclei can be randomly deposited on silicon surface upon immersing into 50 ppb Cu{sup ++}/HF solutions. The Cu deposition rate increases with the concentrations of metal ions and HF. We will also present a new approach to deduce quantitative information of trace amount of Cu deposits (70-200 nanogram/cm{sup 2} of Si) from AFM topographical images. The results will be discussed in the context of metal deposition mechanism with respect to silicon wafer surfaces.

• OSTI ID: 466478
• Report Number(s): CONF-951017--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
COPPER
DEPOSITION
HYDROFLUORIC ACID
IMAGES
INFRARED SPECTRA
MICROSCOPY
PLATING
SILICON
SURFACE TREATMENTS
TRACE AMOUNTS