PRE-LAB 3

PRE-Lab # 3 and Title: Cleaning Procedures for Silicon Wafers

Lab Date: 09/22/2014
Name: Venkata Siva Sai Sresty U6470-3046
Due Date: 09/22/2014
1. What is the purpose of the ultrasonic bath?
Ans. Chemical contamination can ruin the devices and circuit performance,
device stability, process and equipment controllability or reliability. Particulate
contamination can ruin the device and circuit yield, and the process
repeatability. To avoid these contaminations ultrasonic baths are used.
General use - glass, equipment, component cleaning, sonication of cytometer
nozzles, dispersion and solubulisation.
Laboratories - cleaning of components, degassing fluids, mixing fluids and
compounds, fluid dissolution
Biopharm - dissolution of samples.
2. Is the Si surface hydrophobic or hydrophilic?
Ans. Bare silicon surface without any chemical termination is hydrophobic. But
this is very unstable status. Chemical treatment to make silicon surface
hydrogen terminated will make it hydrophobic.
3. Is the SiO2 surface hydrophobic or hydrophilic?
Ans. SiO2 surface is hydrophilic. Si is very easily oxidized forming SiO2 layer in
the air. Chemical treatment to make silicon surface with OH termination will
make it hydrophilic.
4. What techniques are used to test the surface state?
Ans. Techniques used to test the surface of the silicon are
XPS X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
SRV Surface Recombination Velocity
IR Infrared Spectroscopy
AFM Atomic Force Microscopy

5. Why do they use Plasma treatment?
Ans. Surface activation prior bonding has the typical advantage that no
intermediate layer is needed and sufficiently high bonding energy is achieved
after annealing at temperatures below 400 C.
Advantages:
high bonding strength
high temperature stability
process compatibility to semiconductor technology
feasibility at vacuum or different atmospheric gases