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Fabrication Lab-1
Wafer Preparation and Metallization
Shubham Mishra, Shakti Singh
School of Computing and Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, Himanchal Pradesh-175005
E-Mail- T18013,T18005[at]students[dot]iitmandi[dot]ac[dot]in

Abstract—This Report discuss the wafer preparation and met-
allization process as a initial exposure to the device fabrication.
Wafer preparation involve the three step sequential cleaning of
the wafer by treating it with chemicals to remove the surface
irregularities, impurities and formed oxide layer at the surface.
Before cleaning and later after the cleaning contact angle is
measured and the difference is seen visibly. While In metallization
the deposition of metal on semiconductor to form the metal-
semiconductor contact. Here aluminium metal, in particular is
used to form the metal-semiconductor contact.
I. I NTRODUCTION
The first motivation towards the device fabrication is wafer
preparation and metallization. For the effective working of the
fabricated device it’s necessary to have the wafer surface must
be free of impurity and irregularities. When wafer arrives from
the silicon manufacturers it contains many surface impurities
in form of oxides and organic residues becoz of its exposure to
the surroundings. That oxide and organic residue is needs to be
removed and surface must be cleaned properly. The cleaning
process involves the three standard steps developed by Warner
Kern in 1965 while working at Radio Corporation of America.
The three steps are Removal of the Organic Contaminats,
Removal of the Oxide Layer, Removal of the metallic ion
Contamination. These steps are known as RCA-1, RCA-2 and
HF Dip in standard acronym. The metallization process which
interconnects the IC components using Aluminium metal.
Metallization is also to produce metalized areas called bonding
pads around the periphery of the chip to produce metalized
areas for the bonding of wire leads from the package to
the chip. Aluminium metal is the preferable choice amongst
the other becoz of the good adherence, lower resistance and
stronger mechanical bond.
II. WAFER P REPRATION
A. RCA Cleaning
1) RCA-1: RCA-1 cleaning is used to removing the organic
residue from the surface of silicon wafer.The deontamintaion
work bases on the sequential oxidative desorption and
complexing with H 2 O2 − N H 4 OH − H 2 O. This process
oxidises the silicon and leaves a thin oxide on the surface of
wafer. It takes 30 minutes to complete this process.
The material needed for this process is Ammonium Hydroxide,
Hydrogen Peroxide, Pyrex Bath Container and Hot Plate.
To set-up the solution it takes the five minutes.The solution
contains the five parts of water (325 ml DI Water), one part
of ammonium hydroxide (65 ml, 27 percent) and one part of
hydrogen peroxide (65 ml, 30 percent). The procedure goes
like first to put the 325 ml of DI water in a pyrex beaker and
add 65 ml of N H 4 OH and then heat upto 70±5◦ C keeping
it on hotplate.After heating up remove the hot plate from
heater and add 65 ml of H 2 O2 . Solution will form after 1-2
minute confirming it’s ready to use. Now, soak the wafer in
solution for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes keep the wafer
into a container under the tap where DI water is overflowing,
ringing and removing the solution. After several water change
remove the wafer under flowing water.
Since used RCA solution can’t be used since to dispose the
used solution, first dilute it with cold water and let it cool for
10 minutes then with flushing the planty of water and clean
the lab ware with clean water.
2) RCA-2: RCA-2 cleaning is a procedure for removing
metal ions from silicon wafers. The decontamination works
based on the sequential oxidative desorption and complexing
with H 2 O2 − HCl − H 2 O. This is preceded by RCA-1
cleaning, after removing organic residue. In this process, it
oxides the silicon and leaves a thin oxide on the surface of
wafer.
The material needed for this process is same as the material
used for the RCA-1 except Ammonium Hydroxide is replaced
by the Hydrogen Chloride. To make the solution it takes
around five minutes and the complete process takes about
twenty minutes to complete. The general recipe for RCA-
2 cleaning is six parts of water, one part of 27% hydrogen
chloride and one part of 30% is hydrogen peroxide. First pour
300ml of DI water in pyrex bath container and carefully add
50ml hydrochloric acid and then heat it to 70±5◦ C on hot
plate. Later remove it from the hot plate and add 50ml of
30% hydrogen peroxide, solution will start forming bubble
after 1-2 minute. Later soak the wafer in the solution for 10
minutes. Once finished, remove the wafer and rinse with clean
DI water.
To dispose the used RCA-2 solution, first let it cool to the room
temperature. Then pour it in the waste acid labeled container,
keep the lid on it but do not tighten it to allow the escape of
additional gases that might get generated later.
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3) HF cleaning: HF cleaning takes around 5 minutes to TABLE II

complete it. Hydrofluric Acid is used to remove native Silicon H YDROPHOBIC NATURE , M EASUREMENT A FTER C LEANING
DiOxide from wafer surface. HF is a dangerous chemical and PARAMETER VALUE
it’s long exposure can cause cancer. So, protective gear must Contact Angle(Average)[degree] 56.00936
be worn like nitrile gloves and eye protection glasses must Left Angle[degree] 56.12854
Right Angle[degree] 55.89019
be worn. Height from Top to Base[mm] 1.39133
The Solution is prepared by adding 480ml of water in Base Line Length[mm] 5.23962
polypropylent beaker then add 20ml HF. Remember never use Base Area[mm2 ] 21.56202
glass beaker while treating with HF since HF attacks glass. Drop Volume[uL] 15.54811
Wetting Energy[mN/m] 40.69939
Now, soak the wafer for two minutes in the prepared solution Spreading Coefficient[mN/m] -32.10062
and later removed it and rinse it in the DI water. Work of Adhesion[mN/m] 113.49939

B. Contact Angle Measurement

Pouring a drop of DI water by syringe on the surface
of wafer. If the water beads up and rolls off the surface
is hydrophobic and water will not wet it, Otherwise it’s
hydrophillic. Since Oxide is hydrophillic and pure silicon
wafer is hydrophobic, a non wetting surface is clean of oxides.

TABLE I
H YDROPHILLIC NATURE , M EASUREMENT B EFORE C LEANING

PARAMETER
Contact Angle(Average)[degree]
Left Angle[degree]
Right Angle[degree]
Height from Top to Base[mm]
Base Line Length[mm]
Base Area[mm2 ]
Drop Volume[uL]
Wetting Energy[mN/m]
Spreading Coefficient[mN/m]
Work of Adhesion[mN/m]
VALUE
49.81277
49.69816
49.92738
Fig. 2. Figure 2: contact angle measurement for hydrophobic nature, Mea-
1.28016 surement After Cleaning
5.4624
23.4345
15.25849
46.97692 Another use of metallization is to produce metalized areas
-25.82308 called bonding pads around the periphery of the chip to
119.77692
produce metalized areas for the bonding of wire leads from the
package to the chip.Metallization is a back end process which
mainly uses the aluminium metal. It involves deposition,
etching as well as planarization. But this report mainly centred
its discussion to the deposition. The deposition is performed
by creating a vacuum level inside the thermal evaporator
thus evaporating the aluminium metal by heating it and thus
depositing at the surface of substrate atom by atom creating a
thin film. This is also known as the thermal vapour deposition.

Fig. 1. Figure 1: contact angle measurement for hydrophillic nature, Mea-
surement Before Cleaning
III. M ETALLIZATION
Metallization is the final step in the wafer processing
sequence. Metallization is the process by which the
components of ICs are interconnected by aluminium
conductor. This process produces a thin-film metal layer
that will serve as the required conductor pattern for the
interconnection of the various components on the chip.
A. Thermal Evaporator
The thermal evaporation process consists of evaporating and
condensing processes in a vacuum (110-5 millibar) chamber.
Firstly, source materials are evaporated by the heated source,
which is maintaining a few cm distances from a substrate.
Then, evaporated particles are condensed on the substrate.The
resistive method consists of heating materials with a resistively
heated boat or filament, usually manufactured of refractory
metals such as tungsten, molybdenum and tantalum with or
without ceramic coating.
There are several stages to forming thin film on the
substrate. Firstly, loading the small amount of the coating
material into the boat, which is in the chamber, and also
putting substrate in the same chamber. Then, starting vacuum
process for chamber in order to reduce pressure and leads
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(28)L I.jpg
Fig. 3. Figure 3: Thermal Evaporator

path for the free atoms or molecules to very long mean

free. After that pass high current (10-100A) during the boat
that experiences resistive heating followed by vaporizing the
depositing material thermally and the large vapour is able to
reach to the substrate. Finally, it condensed back to the solid
state, creating thin film.

(27).png
Fig. 4. Figure 1: Complete Set-Up of Thermal Evaporator

IV. C ONCLUSION
As a conclusion, the thorough study of RCA cleaning
method and metallization is discussed and subsequent prac-
tical carried out. The contact angle measurement before the
cleaning and after the cleaning is found out to be well aligned
with the theoretical aspect.

R EFERENCES
[1] Chopra, K. L.. Thin Film Phenomena (2nd ed.).New York ; McGraw-Hil,
1969.
[2] Cvimells, Griot Thinfilm production [online];
https://www.cvimellesgriot.com/products/Documents/TechnicalGuide/Optical-
Coatings.pdf
[3] RCA Cleaning Methods. UC Irvine INRF Application Note UC Irvine,
USA.
[4] Sharma, Satinder. VLSI Technology Class Notes, IIT-MANDI, Mandi,
Himanchal Pradesh, India. 2019