In situ cleaning of silicon wafers for selective epitaxial growth (SEG)

The effects of pre-bake temperature, pressure and duration have been studied for silicon SEG substrates. Silicon cusp and trough formation adjacent to the oxide sidewalls in association with the undercutting of the oxide features is reported. Activation energies of Eu=3.35eV for the undercut reaction and E1=1.98eV for the trough forming reaction have been calculated from measurements of the variation of undercut length and trough depth with temperature.