A Simple Process to Produce a High Quality Silicon Surface Prior to Selective Epitaxial Growth

A simple and low-cost process was devised to eliminate etch damage resulting from oxide etching on the seed-hole surface prior to selective epitaxial growth (SEG) of silicon. The process consists of a low power C2F 6RIE step which was performed right after the oxide etch step in the same etch reactor. The use of this step excluded the need of a conventional sacrificial oxide to remove damaged silicon regions and residual polymers. The N/P diodes resulting from N-type SEG grown on P-type substrate were used to evaluate the quality of the silicon surface prior to SEG.