HF wet etching of oxide after ion implantation

Experimental study of wet etching of oxide in diluted HF solution is presented for different ion implantation dosage and energy. This wet etching is used as a mean of wafer cleaning at various steps of VLSI processing. It is shown that the etching rate of oxide is a strong function of ion implantation dosage and energy. The oxide wet etch rate can be restored to non-implanted oxide etch rate after 30 min anneal at 700/spl deg/C. The increase of etch rate after ion implantation is attributed to the breakage of Si-O bonds.