http://patents.justia.com/patent/20150093862

Application number: 20150093862

Abstract: An electron beam plasma source is used in a soft plasma surface treatment of semiconductor surfaces containing Ge or group III-V compound semiconductor materials.

Type: Application

Filed: October 28, 2013

Issued: April 2, 2015

Assignee: APPLIED MATEIRALS, INC.

Inventors: Aneesh Nainani, Bhushan N. Zope, Leonid Dorf, Shahid Rauf, Adam Brand, Mathew Abraham, Subhash Deshmukh

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments disclosed herein concern dry cleaning of semiconductor workpieces (e.g., wafers). Of particular interest is the application to surface cleaning and passivation of semiconductor materials needed for making the next generation of transistor devices, e.g., silicon germanium (SiGe), germanium (Ge) and group III-V compound semiconductor materials, such as In0.47Ga0.53As, GaAs, InAs, and the like. These embodiments address a problem of providing an effective way of surface cleaning, removing the native oxides and carbon contaminants, without using a wet chemistry. To achieve that, these embodiments employ a plasma source that produces high-density plasma with very low ion energy, which can be used for a variety of chemistries needed for effective cleaning of Ge and group III-V compound semiconductor wafers. Unlike other dry cleaning methods, embodiments disclosed herein are capable of cleaning the semiconductor surface without causing surface damage and without breaking semiconductor bonds.