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Evaluation of the Topographical Surface Changes of Silicon Wafers after Annealing and Plasma Cleaning

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Abstract

Purpose

The morphological stability of silicon single crystal wafers was investigated, after performing cleaning surface treatments based on moderate temperature annealing and plasma sputtering.

Methods

The wafer surfaces were measured by Tapping mode atomic force microscopy in air, before and after the different treatments. The 3D images were segmented by watershed algorithm identifying the local peaks, and the stereometric parameters were extracted thereof. The analysis of variance allowed to better assess the statistically significant differences.

Results

All the resulting quantities were critically discussed. It appeared that the different cleaning treatments affected differently the surface morphology changes occurring between pristine and treated surfaces, making them distinguishable in these terms.

Conclusions

The presented combination of measurement technique and analyzing protocol potentially allows one to assess the structural differences of the surfaces of interest, when assumptions are made about the physical origin of the emerging topographical features. In the present case, if no etching is assumed, it appears that all cleaning protocols actually worsen the surface quality. The effect of these morphological differences on the functional properties of the surface should be ascertained independently.

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Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic under the project CEITEC 2020 (LQ1601), Internal Grant Agency of Brno University of Technology, grant No. FEKT-S-17-4626. A part of the work was carried out with the support of CEITEC Nano Research Infrastructure (ID LM2015041, MEYS CR, 2016–2019), CEITEC Brno University of Technology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Computer Science and Materials Science, Institute of Informatics, Department of Biomedical Computer Systems, University of Silesia, Będzińska 39, 41-205, Sosnowiec, Poland

    Sebastian Stach

  2. The Directorate of Research, Development and Innovation Management (DMCDI), The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Constantin Daicoviciu Street, no. 15, 400020, Cluj-Napoca, Cluj county, Romania

    Ştefan Ţălu

  3. Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication, Physics Department, Brno University of Technology, Technická 8, 616 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Rashid Dallaev & Dinara Sobola

  4. Vacuum Technology Research Group, ACECR, Sharif University Branch, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Arman

  5. Central European Institute of Technology, Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 123, 612 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Dinara Sobola

  6. Materials Characterization Facility, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Morego 30, I-16163, Genoa, Italy

    Marco Salerno

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  1. Sebastian Stach
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  2. Ştefan Ţălu
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  6. Marco Salerno
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Correspondence to Marco Salerno.

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Stach, S., Ţălu, Ş., Dallaev, R. et al. Evaluation of the Topographical Surface Changes of Silicon Wafers after Annealing and Plasma Cleaning. Silicon 12, 2563–2570 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00351-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00351-x

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