Stability characterization of high-performance PureB Si-photodiodes under aggressive cleaning treatments in industrial applications

In industrial applications, particularly in vacuum ultraviolet applications and low-energy electron detection systems, a periodic surface cleaning of the used photon/electron detectors is required to prevent the buildup of carbon contaminating layers [1-3]. Such applications can be found in synchrotron measurements, space payload equipment, next-generation extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and high-resolution Scanning Electron Microscopes (SEMs). One effective way to remove the carbon contamination is to use aggressive gasses, such as hydrogen radicals (H*) and oxygen plasma [1-3]. In previous publications we have reported the excellent optical and electrical performance of silicon-based PureB photodiodes produced by high-temperature (HT, 700°C) pure boron chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [12-16]. Also the stability of these HT PureB photodiodes under hydrogen radicals cleaning and oxygen plasma cleaning is reported [4, 5]. Recently, a low-temperature (LT, 400°C) PureB CVD process has been introduced, which is fully CMOS compatible [17]. In this work, a review study is presented of the effect of detrimental environment, particularly related to H* and oxygen plasma cleaning, on the performance of the both HT and LT PureB-diodes.