Carbon Removal and Native Oxide Cleaning on Si and SiGe Surfaces in Previum Chamber

Advanced technology node demands new capabilities in pre-cleaning substrates of epitaxy films. In particular, cleaning carbon and native oxide on Si and SiGe surfaces are required. In this paper, we present an approach to cleaning both carbon and Si/SiGe native oxide using Previum chamber with two distinct chemistries. FTIR and SEM are used to characterize the conversion and sublimation steps of cleaning native oxide, and carbon film etch rate by hydrogen radicals is presented. The carbon cleaning and oxide cleaning capabilities are integrated in Previum chamber and significantly improved cleaning results are supported by SIMS.