US PATENT SUBCLASS 438 / 471
GETTERING OF SUBSTRATE

Current as of: June, 1999
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438 /   HD   SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE MANUFACTURING: PROCESS

471GETTERING OF SUBSTRATE {4}
472  DF  .~> By vibrating or impacting
473  DF  .~> By implanting or irradiating {1}
476  DF  .~> By layers which are coated, contacted, or diffused
477  DF  .~> By vapor phase surface reaction

DEFINITION

Classification: 438/471

GETTERING OF SUBSTRATE:

(under the class definition) Process having a step of treating a semiconductor substrate to reduce or remove deleterious defects (impurities, vacancies, dislocations, etc.) therefrom.

(1) Note. Examples of gettering techniques include segregation (e.g., coalescence) of defects to a defined region, implanting internal defect localizing regions, removal of superfluous electrical charges other than mere static electricity or those accumulated during manufacture (e.g., passivation of dangling bonds on the substrate surface by covalently bonding to hydrogen), and removal of mobile ion contamination such as by volatilization.

(2) Note. The introduction of recombination centers (i.e., deep level dopants) into the semiconductor substrate, such centers serving to control carrier lifetime, is not considered to be gettering for the purpose of this and

indented subclasses. However, the removal of the same from the semiconductor substrate is proper hereunder.

(3) Note. Gettering includes treating the substrate locally (e.g., surface, internal regions, etc.). In gettering, impurities within the substrate may be attracted to a region of the substrate where they can be removed or "fixed". In cleaning, foreign matter on the substrate surface is removed. Thus there may be a cleaning step within an overall process of gettering. Processes of apparatus gettering (i.e., apparatus cleaning) are not considered proper hereunder unless combined with the gettering of a semiconductor substrate.

SEE OR SEARCH THIS CLASS, SUBCLASS:

115, for a step of contaminant removal or mitigation in a process of mounting, packaging, or encapsulating a semiconductor device.

510, for a process of doping semiconductive regions with an electrically active element. 795, for a process of radiation or energy treating a semiconductive substrate to modify the properties thereof of semiconductive regions thereof.

SEE OR SEARCH CLASS

134, Cleaning and Liquid Contact With Solids,

1, 42 for a process of cleaning.