Water management on semiconductor surfaces

The wafer direct bonding technique is very sensitive to water adsorbed on surfaces just before bonding; hence it is a useful way to characterize the impact of the trapped water and subsequently the wafer drying efficiency. We have focused this work on the water behavior at the bonding interface depending on the nature of the surface but also depending on the thermal treatment. Then we described the drying impact on surfaces after innovative solvent exposure, in a liquid or in a vapor phase, compared with standard isopropyl alcohol drying. We report characterization results from different techniques investigating both native and thermal oxides. We also characterized innovative solvent drying, especially in a vapor phase.