[labnetwork] LPCVD film anomaly

[Pramod Karulkar]

These may be arising from microscopic water drops.  A wafer clean & rinse
is not cleaning/drying wafers properly, leaving residue, has a post process
dispense of fluid, or a dryer component or the wafer handling process is
adding moisture residue to wafers.   Audit the whole process  (including
face masks).  Compare results in oxide and silicon areas of starting
wafers.  Water problem will be more prevalent in silicon aras.
Good luck.
Pramod C Karulkar Ph D
+15037561433

On Tue, Aug 3, 2021, 9:19 AM Terre Briggs <terreb at umich.edu> wrote:

> Hello All,
>     We are currently having film quality issues with our LPCVD Low Stress
> Nitride, HTO and Nitride films. Without getting into all of the details
> just yet I am sharing with you some SEM images. The anomaly, as our furnace
> manufacturer describes it, are what look like spheres, or bubbles on the
> surface of the films. We are pretty confident that the spheres are only on
> the surface and not down into the film itself.
> It is very random across the wafers and across the wafer load. After
> further processing, the spheres come off and leave behind a divot, or
> crater on the surface. This can also be seen in the SEM images.
>    My question is, has anyone ever seen anything like this with any of
> your LPCVD films? I have been working with Tempress for the last several
> months to resolve the issue, but they have never seen anything like
> this, and so far we have not made any progress in determining the source.
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks.....Terre
>
> Terre Briggs
> Engineer in Research Sr.
> Lurie Nanofabrication Laboratory
> University of Michigan
> 1301 Beal Ave.
> Ann Arbor, MI 48109
> 734-320-4470
>
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