Methods for epitaxial silicon growth

摘要

Methods of cleaning substrates and growing epitaxial silicon thereon are provided. Wafers are exposed to a plasma for a sufficient time prior to epitaxial silicon growth, in order to clean the wafers. The methods exhibit enhanced selectivity and reduced lateral growth of epitaxial silicon. The wafers may have dielectric areas that are passivated by the exposure of the wafer to a plasma.

主权项

1. A method of cleaning a semiconductor surface comprising:
providing a wafer having an upper surface with at least one silicon area thereon; forming a plasma from a gas flow; cleaning said upper surface of said wafer with said plasma, wherein said cleaning of the upper surface renders said silicon area suitable for subsequent epitaxial silicon growth.