The surface of silicon dummy wafers is contaminated with metallic impurities owing to the reaction with and adhesion of chemicals during the oxidation process. These metallic impurities negatively affect the device performance, reliability, and yield. To solve this problem, a wafer-cleaning process that removes metallic impurities is essential. RCA (Radio Corporation of America) cleaning is commonly used, but there are problems such as increased surface roughness and formation of metal hydroxides. Herein, we attempt to use a chelating agent (EDTA) to reduce the surface roughness, improve the stability of cleaning solutions, and prevent the re-adsorption of impurities. The bonding between the cleaning solution and metal powder is analyzed by referring to the Pourbaix diagram. The changes in the ionic conductivity, H2O2 decomposition behavior, and degree of dissolution are checked with a conductivity meter, and the changes in the absorbance and particle size before and after the reaction are confirmed by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) analyses. Thus, the addition of a chelating agent prevents the decomposition of H2O2 and improves the life of the silicon wafer cleaning solution, allowing it to react smoothly with metallic impurities.

Waste SiC powders obtained from silicon wafer sludge have very low density and a narrow particle size distribution of 10-20 μm. A scarce yield of C and Si is expected when SiC powders are incorporated into the Fe melt without briquetting. Here, the briquetting variables of the SiC powders are studied as a function of the sintering temperature, pressure, and type and contents of the binders to improve the yield. It is experimentally confirmed that Si and C from the sintered briquette can be incorporated effectively into the Fe melt when the waste SiC powders milled for 30 min with 20 wt.% Fe binder are sintered at 1100oC upon compaction using a pressure of 250 MPa. XRF-WDS analysis shows that an yield of about 90% is obtained when the SiC briquette is kept in the Fe melt at 1650oC for more than 1 h.

The relationship the between electrical properties and surface roughness (Ra) of a wet-etched silicon wafer were studied. Ra was measured by an alpha-step process and atomic force microscopy (AFM) while varying the measuring range 10×10, 40×40, and 1000×1000μm. The resistivity was measured by assessing the surface resistance using a four-point probe method. The relationship between the resistivity and Ra was explained in terms of the surface roughness. The minimum error value between the experimental and theoretical resistivities was 4.23% when the Ra was in a range of 10×10μm according to AFM measurement. The maximum error value was 14.09% when the Ra was in a range of 40×40μm according to AFM measurement. Thus, the resistivity could be estimated when the Ra was in a narrow range.

The electrical properties and surface morphology changes of a silicon wafer as a function of the HF concentration as the wafer is etched were studied. The HF concentrations were 28, 30, 32, 34, and 36 wt%. The surface morphology changes of the silicon wafer were measured by an SEM (80˚ tilted at ×200) and the resistivity was measured by assessing the surface resistance using a four-point probe method. The etching rate increased as the HF concentration increased. The maximum etching rate 27.31 μm/min was achieved at an HF concentration of 36 wt%. A concave wave formed on the wafer after the wet etching process. The size of the wave was largest and the resistivity reached 7.54 ohm·cm at an 30 wt% of HF concentration. At an HF concentration of 30 wt%, therefore, a silicon wafer should have good joining strength with a metal backing as well as good electrical properties.

This paper investigates the dependence of a-Si:H/c-Si passivation and heterojunction solar cell performances on various cleaning processes of silicon wafers. It is observed that the passivation quality of a-Si:H thin-films on c-Si wafers depends highly on the initial H-termination properties of the wafer surface. The effective minority carrier lifetime (MCLT) of highly H-terminated wafer is beneficial for obtaining high quality passivation of a-Si:H/c-Si. The wafers passivated by p(n)-doped a-Si:H layers have low MCLT regardless of the initial H-termination quality. On the other hand, the MCLT of wafers incorporating intrinsic (i) a-Si:H as a passivation layer shows sensitive variation with initial cleaning and H-termination schemes. By applying the improved cleaning processes, we can obtain an MCLT of 100μsec after H-termination and above 600μsec after i a-Si:H thin film deposition. By adapting improved cleaning processes and by improving passivation and doped layers, we can fabricate a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction solar cells with an active area conversion efficiency of 18.42%, which cells have an open circuit voltage of 0.670V, short circuit current of 37.31 mA/cm2 and fill factor of 0.7374. These cells show more than 20% pseudo efficiency measured by Suns-Voc with an elimination of series resistance.

실리콘 웨이퍼 직접 접합을 성공하기 위해서는 양호한 접합면을 구성하여야 하며, 이를 위해 접합면에서 발생하는 주요 결함 중 하나인 기포형 접합 결함을 억제하여야 한다. 본 연구에서는 접합면에서 발생하는 기포형 결함의 상온 접합 및 열처리 과정에서의 거동을 관찰하여 내부의 압력이 증가함을 직접 관찰할 수 있었다. 또한, 대기압 하의 열처리에서 결함이 발생하지 않는 SiO2-SiO2 접합 웨이퍼가 진공에서의 열처리에서 결함이 발생하는 현상을 통해 기포형 결함의 내부 압력과 성장과의 관계를 실험을 통하여 증명할 수 있었다.

고 에너지 (1.5 MeV) 이온 주입된 Boron의 농도와 silicon 기판의 초기 산소 농도의 변화에 따라 silicon기판에 형성된 결정 결함 및 금속 불순물의 Gettering 효율에 대하여 DLTS(Deep Level Transient Spectroscopy), SIMS(Secondary ion Mass Spectroscopy), BMD(Bulk Micro-Defect) analysis 및 TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy)을 이용하여 연구하였다. 이온 주입 전후의 DLTS 결과를 확산로 및 RTA를 이용한 열처리 전후의 DLTS 결과와 비교할 때 이온 주입 전 시편에서 볼 수 있는 공공에 의한 깊은 준위는 열처리 온도의 증가에 따라 금속 불순물과 관련된 깊은 준위로 천이함을 알 수 있다. 또한 고온 열처리의 경우, 초기 산소 농도가 높을수록 깊은 준위의 농도가 감소함을 볼 때 초기 산소 농도가 높을 수록 gettering 효율 측면에서 유리한 것으로 사료된다

We used Cu as a representative of metals to be directly adsorbed on the bare Si surface and studied its removal DHF, DHF-H2O2 and BHF solution. It has been found that Cu ion in DHF adheres on every Si wafer surface that we used in our study (n, p, n+, p+) especially on the n+-Si surface. The DHF-H2O2 solution is found to be effective in removing metals featuring high electronegativity such as Cu from the p-Si and n-Si wafers. Even when the DHF-H2O2 solution has Cu ions at the concentration of 1ppm, the solution is found effective in cleaning the wafer. In the case the n+-Si and p+-Si wafers, however, their surfaces get contaminated with Cu When Cu ion of 10ppb remains in the DHF-H2O2 solution. When BHF is used, Cu in BHF is more likely to contaminate the n+-Si wafer. It is also revealed that the surfactant added to BHF improve wettability onto p-Si, n-Si and p+-Si wafer surface. This effect of the surfactant, however, is not observed on the n+-Si wafer and is increased when it is immersed in the DHF-H2O2 solution for 10min. The rate of the metallic contamination on the n+-Si wafer is found to be much higher than on the other Si wafers. In order to suppress the metallic contamination on every type of Si surface below 1010atoms/cm2, the metallic concentration in ultra pure water and high-purity DHF which is employed at the final stage of the cleaning process must be lowered below the part per trillion level. The DHF-H2O2 solution, however, degrades surface roughness on the substrate with the n+ and p+ surfaces. In order to remove metallic impurities on these surfaces, there is no choice at present but to use the NH4OH-H2O2-H2O and HCl-H2O2-H2O cleaning.

반도체 소자가 점점 고집적회되고 고성능화되면서 Si 기판 세정 방법은 그 중요성이 더욱 더 커지고 있다. 특히 ULSI급 소자에서는 세정 방법이 소자 생산수율 및 신뢰성에 큰 영향을 끼치고 있다. 본 연구에서는 HF-last 세정에 UV/O3과 SC-1 세정을 삽입하여 그 영향을 관찰하였다. 세정 방법은 HF-last 세정을 기본으로 split 1(piranha+HF), split 2(piranha+UV/O3+HF), split 3(piraha+SC-1+HF), split 4(piranha+(UV/O3+HF) x3회 반복)의 4가지 세정 방법으로 나누어 실험하였다. 세정을 마친 Si 기판은 Total X-Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy(AFM)을 사용하여 표면거칠기를 측정하였다. 또한 세정류량을 측정하고, Atomic Force Microscopy(AFM)을 사용하여 표면거칠기를 측정하였다. 또한 세정후 250Å의 gate 산화막을 성장시켜 전기적 특성을 측정하였다. UV/O3을 삽입한 split 2와 split 4세정방법이 물리적, 전기적 특성에서 우수한 특성을 나타냈고, SC-1을 삽입한 split 3세정 방법이 표준세정인 split 1세정 방법보다 우수하지 못한 결과를 나타냈다.