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:
Jun. 06, 2017
Filed:
Jul. 09, 2015
Tokyo Electron Limited, Minato-ku, Tokyo, JP;
Richard H. Gaylord, Saratoga Springs, NY (US);
Joel Barnett, Austin, TX (US);
Tokyo Electron Limited, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
A method for gas phase oxide removal and passivation of germanium-containing semiconductors and compound semiconductors is disclosed in various embodiments. According to one embodiment of the invention, a method is provided for processing a semiconductor substrate. The method includes providing a substrate containing a germanium-containing semiconductor or a compound semiconductor, and exposing the substrate to a process gas containing a sulfur-containing gas and a nitrogen-containing gas that passivates a surface of the germanium-containing semiconductor or the compound semiconductor with sulfur. According to another embodiment, the germanium-containing semiconductor or the compound semiconductor has an oxidized layer thereon and the exposing to the process gas removes the oxidized layer from the substrate. According to another embodiment, the substrate may be treated with hydrogen fluoride (HF) gas and ammonia (NH.sub.3) gas to remove the oxidized layer from the substrate before passivating the germanium-containing semiconductor or compound semiconductor with sulfur.