Surface Preparation of III-V Semiconductors

As the feature size of Si-based semiconductor shrinks to nanometer scale, we are facing to the problems such as short channel effect and leakage current. One of the solutions to cope with those issues is to bring III-V compound semiconductors to the semiconductor structures, because III-V compound semiconductors have much higher carrier mobility than Si. However, introduction of III-V semiconductors to the current Si-based manufacturing process requires great challenge in the development of process integration, since they exhibit totally different physical and chemical properties from Si. For example, epitaxial growth, surface preparation and wet etching of III-V semiconductors have to be optimized for production. In addition, oxidation mechanisms of III-V semiconductors should be elucidated and re-growth of native oxide should be controlled. In this study, surface preparation methods of various III-V compound semiconductors such as GaAs, InAs, and GaSb are introduced in terms of i) how their surfaces are modified after different chemical treatments, ii) how they will be re-oxidized after chemical treatments, and iii) is there any effect of surface orientation on the surface preparation and re-growth of oxide. Surface termination and behaviors on those semiconductors were observed by MIR-FTIR, XPS, ellipsometer, and contact angle measurements. In addition, photoresist stripping process on III-V semiconductor is also studied, because there is a chance that a conventional photoresist stripping process can attack III-V semiconductor surfaces. Based on the Hansen theory various organic solvents such as 1-methyl-2-pyrrolydone, dimethyl sulfoxide, benzyl alcohol, and propylene carbonate, were selected to remove photoresists with and without ion implantation. Although SPM and DIO3 caused etching and/or surface roughening of III-V semiconductor surface, organic solvents could remove I-line photoresist without attack of III-V semiconductor surface. The behavior of photoresist removal depends on the solvent temperature and ion implantation dose.