Down stream oxidation of silicon using an ECR microwave plasma disk reactor

A microwave plasma disk reactor (MPDR) is being used to develop a low temperature method for growing high quality oxides on silicon wafers. In this application, the PMDR is used an an electrodeless, low maintenance, high density source of energetic oxygen ions and free radicals which are applied in the anodic growth of oxides on silicon. It is excited in a tuned, single resonant mode for efficient coupling to the plasma. The apparatus has previously been used to demonstrate the growth of high quality oxides over small areas in non-ECR microwave discharges. In this work, oxidation of a 7.6 cm diameter silicon wafer is accomplished using a 2.45 GHz multicusp electron cyclotron resonant (ECR) MPDR. The potential of scaling to a 6 to 8 inch wafer ECR processing system is discussed