The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 03, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 21, 1998
Jack H Linn, Melbourne, FL (US);
George V Rouse, Indialantic, FL (US);
Sana Rafie, Melbourne, FL (US);
Roberta R Nolan-Lobmeyer, West Melbourne, FL (US);
Diana Lynn Hackenberg, West Melbourne, FL (US);
Steven T Slasor, Palm Bay, FL (US);
Timothy A Valade, Melbourne, FL (US);
Harris Corporation, Melbourne, FL (US);
Abstract
Pre heat-treatment processing of a silicon wafer to grow a hydrophilic oxide layer includes an initial step of contacting the wafer with a pre-clean SC-1 bath, thereby producing a silicon wafer surface that is highly particle free. After a deionized water rinse, the wafer is scoured with an aqueous solution containing hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid to remove metallic-containing oxide from the wafer surface. In order to grow a hydrophilic oxide layer, an SC-2 bath (containing hydrogen peroxide and a dilute concentration of metal-scouring HCl) is used. The resulting hydrophilic silicon oxide layer grown on the surface of the silicon wafer using the combined SC-1.fwdarw.HF/HCL.fwdarw.SC-2 wafer cleaning process has a metal concentration no greater than 1.times.10.sup.9. The diffusion length of minority carriers is increased from a range on the order of 500-600 microns to a range on the order of 800-900 microns.