Abstract

Non-thermal photochemical removal of oxygen atoms from a SiO₂ layer on a silicon wafer using short wavelength emission has recently attracted much attention in semiconductor industry and other related areas. It provides not only physics on the interaction between surface and high-energy photons, but also novel engineering aspect such as non-thermal nano-scale materials processing. Typical oxygen removal (or deoxidation) process of an oxidized layer on a silicon wafer utilizes chemicals such as hydrofluoric acid and/or alkalis. Such a treatment would certainly harm the environment and residual chemicals may play a negative role in the semiconductor processing. In addition, the direct removal of oxygen atoms from a SiO₂ layer could open up the possibility of using a SiO₂ bulk as an insulator in the recent silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology.

© 2002 Optical Society of America