The Study of Surface Morphology and Roughness of Silicon Wafers Treated by Plasma

Abstract

Plasma is generally used for the doping of semiconductors. During plasma doping process, plasma interacts with the surface of semiconductor. As a result, defects are induced in the surface region. In this work, the surface morphology and roughness of silicon wafer caused by plasma treatment is studied by use of atom force microscope (AFM). It is found that, during the plasma process, each of the processing time of plasma, location of silicon wafer in plasma and the way of placement of silicon wafer has an influence on the surface morphology and roughness and the reason is discussed. The interaction between plasma and the surface of silicon wafer is qualitatively discussed.