Etch damage removal process without Si substrate loss employing hydrogen-plasma after treatment

Hydrogen-plasma after treatment (HAT) technique has been investigated to remove oxide etch damage. Using the HAT technique complete oxidation is performed even on a etch-damaged Si substrate. This causes smaller surface roughness and higher breakdown voltage of the oxide film. Contact resistance drastically decreases with an application of the HAT. SiC layer formed by oxide etching on the contact hole bottoms locally vanishes, which generates an epitaxial growth of upper polysilicon deposition. And Si loss of the hole bottom is one tenth in comparison with the conventional light etching process