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6680176 
Journal Article 
Silicon dioxide removal in anhydrous HF gas 
Cleavelin, CR; Duranko, GT 
1987 
10 
12 
94-99 
INSPEC:3149642 
A new technique, which does not involve vacuum, high temperatures, or damage the surface, has been developed to remove oxides. This technique uses anhydrous hydrogen fluoride gas and permits the use of HF as the last step in a cleaning or etching process without the drawbacks of `HF last' processing. Anhydrous HF etching is accomplished through the combination of nitrogen, DI water vapor and 99.9% pure HF gas. Nitrogen is used as a carrier gas and water vapor is used to both initiate the reaction and to continue the etch. As a result of the high concentration of HF gas, etch rates between 15 Aring/sec and 400 Aring/sec are easily obtainable.