Improved methods and systems for passivating a surface of a high-mobility semiconductor and structures and devices formed using the methods are disclosed. The method includes providing a high-mobility semiconductor surface to a chamber of a reactor and exposing the high-mobility semiconductor surface to a gas-phase chalcogen precursor to passivate the high-mobility semiconductor surface.

Improved methods and systems for passivating a surface of a high-mobility semiconductor and structures and devices formed using the methods are disclosed. The method includes providing a high-mobility semiconductor surface to a chamber of a reactor and exposing the high-mobility semiconductor surface to a gas-phase sulfur precursor to passivate the high-mobility semiconductor surface.

The embodiments disclosed herein pertain to methods and apparatus for depositing stress compensating layers and sacrificial layers on either the front side or back side of a substrate. In various implementations, back side deposition occurs while the wafer is in a normal front side up orientation. The front/back side deposition may be performed to reduce stress introduced through deposition on the front side of the wafer. The back side deposition may also be performed to minimize back side particle-related problems that occur during post-deposition processing such as photolithography.

Methods of forming structures that include InP-based materials, such as a transistor operating as an inversion-type, enhancement-mode device are disclosed. A dielectric layer may be deposited by ALD over a semiconductor layer including In and P. A channel layer may be formed above a buffer layer having a lattice constant similar to a lattice constant of InP, the buffer layer being formed over a substrate having a lattice constant different from a lattice constant of InP.

Embodiments described herein provide a self-limiting and saturating SiO.sub.x bilayer process which does not require the use of a plasma or catalyst and that does not lead to undesirable substrate oxidation. Methods of the disclosure do not produce SiO.sub.2, but instead produce a saturated SiO.sub.x film with OH termination to make substrate surfaces highly reactive towards metal ALD precursors to seed high nucleation and growth of gate oxide ALD materials.

A technique relates to in-situ cleaning of a high-mobility substrate. Alternating pulses of a metal precursor and exposure to a plasma of a gas or gas mixture are applied. The gas or gas mixture contains both nitrogen and hydrogen (e.g., NH.sub.3). A passivation layer is formed on the high-mobility substrate by alternating pulses of the metal precursor and exposure to the plasma of a gas, or gas mixture, containing both nitrogen and hydrogen.

Embodiments described herein provide a self-limiting and saturating SiO.sub.x bilayer process which does not require the use of a plasma or catalyst and that does not lead to undesirable substrate oxidation. Methods of the disclosure do not produce SiO.sub.2, but instead produce a saturated SiO.sub.x film with OH termination to make substrate surfaces highly reactive towards metal ALD precursors to seed high nucleation and growth of gate oxide ALD materials.

In some embodiments, a semiconductor surface having a high mobility semiconductor may be effectively passivated by nitridation, preferably using hydrazine, a hydrazine derivative, or a combination thereof. The surface may be the semiconductor surface of a transistor channel region. In some embodiments, a semiconductor surface oxide layer is formed at the semiconductor surface and the passivation is accomplished by forming a semiconductor oxynitride layer at the surface, with the nitridation contributing nitrogen to the surface oxide to form the oxynitride layer. The semiconductor oxide layer may be deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and the nitridation may also be conducted as part of the ALD.

A method of processing includes: providing a substrate having a contaminant material disposed on the copper surface to a substrate support within a hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) chamber; providing hydrogen (H.sub.2) gas to the HWCVD chamber; heating one or more filaments disposed in the HWCVD chamber to a temperature sufficient to dissociate the hydrogen (H.sub.2) gas; exposing the substrate to the dissociated hydrogen (H.sub.2) gas to remove at least some of the contaminant material from the copper surface; cooling the one or more filaments to room temperature; exposing the substrate in the HWCVD chamber to one or more chemical precursors to deposit a self-assembled monolayer atop the copper surface; and depositing a second layer atop the substrate.

A method for manufacturing a passivation stack on a crystalline silicon solar cell device. The method includes providing a substrate comprising a crystalline silicone layer such as a crystalline silicon wafer or chip, cleaning a surface of the crystalline silicon layer by removing an oxide layer at least from a portion of one side of the crystalline silicon layer, depositing, on at least a part of the cleaned surface, a layer of silicon oxynitride, and depositing a capping layer comprising a hydrogenated dielectric material on top of the layer of silicon oxynitride, wherein the layer of silicon oxynitride is deposited at a temperature from 100 C. to 200 C., and the step of depositing the layer of silicon oxynitride includes using N.sub.2O and SiH.sub.4 as precursor gasses in an N.sub.2 ambient atmosphere and depositing silicon oxynitride with a gas flow ratio of N.sub.2O to SiH.sub.4 below 2.