The 14th International Symposium on Ultra Clean Processing of Semiconductor Surfaces (14th UCPSS 2018, Leuven, Belgium, September 3-5, 2018) was organized by IMEC and the scope of this symposium includes all issues related to contamination, cleaning and surface preparation in mainstream large-scale Integrated Circuit manufacturing. This collection will be interesting and useful for experts in the field of microelectronics.

Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS). The contents of this publication include every conceivable issue related to contamination, cleaning and surface preparation during mainstream large-scale integrated circuit manufacture. Typically, silicon is used as the main semiconductor substrate. However, other semiconducting materials such as SiGe and SiC are currently being used in the source-sink junction areas, and materials such as Ge and III-V compounds are being considered for the transistor channel region of future-generation devices.

The International Symposium on Ultra-Clean Processing of Semiconductor Surfaces (UCPSS) is a bi-annual conference which has been organized by IMEC since 1992. Volume is indexed by Thomson Reuters CPCI-S (WoS). The scope of the symposium includes all issues related to contamination, cleaning and surface preparation in mainstream large-scale Integrated Circuit manufacture. At first, silicon was typically the main semiconductor of interest. As other semiconducting materials such as SiGe, SiC, Ge and III-V compounds came under consideration for future devices, the scope was broadened so as to include these materials. Parallelling the fast-moving CMOS industry, the photovoltaic industry has also recognized the need to make improvements in cleaning. Moreover, in order to promote these semiconductor cleaning activities in PV, it was decided to add a special session focused on this topic.

A totally new concept for clean surface processing of Si wafers is introduced in this book. Some fifty distinguished researchers and engineers from the leading Japanese semiconductor companies, such as NEC, Hitachi, Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic as well as from several universities reveal to us for the first time the secrets of these highly productive institutions. They describe the techniques and equipment necessary for the preparation of clean high-quality semiconductor surfaces as a first step in high-yield/high-quality device production. This book thus opens the door to the manufacturing of reliable nanoscale devices and will be extremely useful for every engineer, physicist and technician involved in the production of silicon semiconductor devices.

Wafer cleaning, microcontamination and surface passivation are the key focus of this proceedings volume, the 3rd in a successful series from MRS. It is a field in which control of surface chemistry and surface morphology, as well as particle and molecular contamination removal, are of critical importance. This volume expands the scope of the topic to include ultraclean technology in a broader sense, emphasizing the identification and characterization of trace contamination, strategies for removal, and equipment considerations, as well as critical limits for impact on devices. Novel processes, such as chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), and their ramifications for contamination removal are also addressed.

Evaluating the effectiveness of conventional wet processes for cleaning silicon wafers in semiconductor production, this reference reveals concrete measures to improve ultrapure water quality reviewing the structure and physical characteristics of ultrapure water molecules. The volume is divided int