Heat treatment method for a silicon wafer and a silicon wafer heat-treated by the method
AssigneeShin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd.
InventorsTakao Abe, Norihiro Kobayashi
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Abstract
There is disclosed a heat treatment method for a silicon wafer. A silicon wafer, on which a natural oxide film is formed at least at the surface thereof, is loaded directly into a heat treatment furnace heated to a temperature within a temperature range of 1000° C. to the melting point of silicon. Subsequently, the silicon wafer is heat-treated at a temperature within the temperature range, and the silicon wafer having a temperature within the temperature range is unloaded from the heat treatment furnace immediately after the heat treatment is completed. The heat treatment method can be performed at low cost, and can remove crystal defects within a short period of time, with no use of gas endangering safety such as hydrogen.
Claims24
A heat treatment method for a silicon wafer, comprising the steps of:
- contacting a silicon wafer with a solution to thereby intentionally form a natural oxide film on the entire surface of the silicon wafer;
- loading the silicon wafer having the natural oxide film on the entire surface directly into a heat treatment furnace heated to a temperature within a temperature range of 1000° C. to the melting point of silicon;
- heat-treating the silicon wafer at a temperature within the temperature range;
- and
- unloading the silicon wafer having a temperature within the temperature range from the heat treatment furnace immediately after the heat treatment is completed.
A heat treatment method for a silicon wafer, comprising:
- contacting a silicon wafer with a solution to thereby intentionally form a natural oxide film on the entire surface of the silicon wafer;
- loading the silicon wafer having the natural oxide film on the entire surface directly into a heat treatment furnace heated to a temperature within a temperature range;
- heat-treating the silicon wafer in the heat treatment furnace at a temperature within the temperature range, the heat treatment being performed in the presence of an ambient gas consisting essentially of a gas selected from the group consisting of nitrogen, inert gas and mixtures thereof;
- and
- unloading the silicon wafer having a temperature within the temperature range from the heat treatment furnace immediately after the heat treatment is completed.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.