Low Temperature Silicon Surface Cleaning by HF Etching/Ultraviolet Ozone Cleaning (HF/UVOC) Method (II)–in situ UVOC

Abstract
A new method to obtain clean silicon surfaces using a thermal treatment at as low as 700°C is proposed. The method consists of an ex situ treatment of HF dipping followed by a rinse in distilled, deionized water and in situ treatments of both UVOC under low oxygen pressure and annealing in vacuo. From the Arrhenius plot of the removal rate of the surface oxide, two mechanisms corresponding to a diffusion of the volatile product, SiO, and a reaction between oxygen and silicon are suggested to exist, with activation energies 3.7 eV and 1.9 eV, respectively.