Removal of Cu and Fe Impurities on Silicon Wafers from Cleaning Solutions

The removal efficiency of Cu and Fe contaminants on the silicon wafer surface was examined to investigate the effect of cleaning solutions on the behavior of metallic impurities. Silicon wafers were intentionally contaminated with Cu and Fe solutions by spin coating and cleaned in different types of cleaning solutions based on NH4OH/H2O2/H2O (SC1), H2O2/HCL/H2O (SC2), and/or HCl/H2O (m-SC2) mixtures. The concentration of metallic contaminants on the silicon wafer surface before and after cleaning was analyzed by vapor phase decomposition/inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (VPD/ICP-MS). Cu ions were effectively removed both in alkali (SC1) and in acid (SC2) based solutions. When H2O2 was not added to SC2 solution like m-SC2, the removal efficiency of Cu impurities was decreased drastically. The efficiency of Cu ions in SC1 was not changed by increasing cleaning temperature. Fe ions were soluble only in acid solution like SC2 or m-SC2 solution. The removal efficiencies of Fe ions in acid solutions were enhanced by increasing cleaning temperature. It is found that the behavior of metallic contaminants as Cu and Fe from silicon surfaces in cleaning solutions could be explained in terms of Pourbaix diagram.