Oxidation of silicon without the formation of stacking faults

Abstract
A new technique of eliminating oxidation‐induced surface stacking faults has been developed. It involves heating clean silicon wafers in an inert or HCl‐inert ambient in the same furnace where subsequent oxidation—wet or dry—will be carried out. Typical fault densities after oxidation without in situ cleaning are 1000–5000 and 50–500/cm2 for n‐ and p‐type wafers; these numbers are reduced to ∼10–100 and 0, respectively, when in situ cleaning is used.