Improvement of aluminum-Si contact performance in native-oxide-free processing

The improvement of Al-to-Si contact performance to a low contact resistance of 0.4 mu Omega -cm/sup 2/ and a Schottky junction having an n factor of 1.02 without any thermal treatment has been achieved by a native-oxide-free processing technique. The technique consists of N/sub 2/-gas-sealed wet cleaning using pure water with low dissolved oxygen (20 p.p.b.), wafer transport and loading in an N/sub 2/ environment, and Al deposition by low-energy ion bombardment.>