2004 年 70 巻 3 号 p. 391-396
Ultraprecision surface preparation techniques to make atomically flat Si surfaces are strongly demanded in the next-generation semiconductor technology age. However, effective technique dose not exist particularly for Si(001) surface smoothing. The only possible technique is a heating method in the ultra-high vacuum, however it dose not have industrial feasibility. In this work, a new EEM (Elastic Emission Machining) system having ultrahigh cleanliness has been developed for semiconductor surface preparation. In the EEM system, ultraclean techniques such as a refining system for mixture fluid and numerically controlled sample stages hydrostatically supported by ultrapure water are developed and equipped. Machined surfaces are observed by AFM (atomic force microscope). Obtained images show that topmost atoms on the premachined surfaces are preferentially removed in EEM, and that the processed surfaces have atomic-level flatness.
