Oxidation of silicon without the formation of stacking faults

A new technique of eliminating oxidation-induced surface stacking faults has been developed. It involves heating clean silicon wafers in an inert or HCl-inert ambient in the same furnace where subsequent oxidation—wet or dry—will be carried out. Typical fault densities after oxidation without in situ cleaning are 1000–5000 and 50–500/cm2 for n- and p-type wafers; these numbers are reduced to ∼10–100 and 0, respectively, when in situ cleaning is used.