Methods of forming a silicon seed layer and layers of silicon and silicon-containing material therefrom

1. A method, comprising:

forming a layer of silicon dioxide above a structure;

converting at least a portion of said layer of silicon dioxide into a silicon-salt layer; and

converting at least a portion of said silicon-salt layer to a layer of silicon.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a deposition process to form a bulk layer of a silicon-containing material while using said silicon layer as a seed layer.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising converting at least a portion of said layer of silicon to silicon nitride.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising introducing a dopant material into at least one of said layer of silicon dioxide or said layer of silicon to thereby form at least one of a doped layer of silicon dioxide or a doped layer of silicon.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said dopant material is introduced into said at least one of said layer of silicon dioxide or said layer of silicon by performing one of an in situ doping process or an ion implantation process.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein forming said layer of silicon dioxide comprises performing at least one of a thermal growth process, a chemical vapor deposition process, a spin coating process and a thermal curing process.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said layer of silicon dioxide is one of a thermally grown layer of silicon dioxide, a flowable oxide, a native oxide and a spin-on glass material.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein converting at least a portion of said layer of silicon dioxide into said silicon-salt layer comprises performing a process operation on said layer of silicon dioxide with a halogen-containing gas.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein said process operation is performed at a temperature less than 50° C.

10. The method of claim 7 , wherein said halogen-containing gas is ammonium hydrogen fluoride gas (NH 4 F.HF).

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein converting at least a portion of said silicon-salt layer to said layer of silicon comprises performing a process operation on said silicon-salt layer using a gas comprised of hydrogen or hydrogen radicals.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein said process operation is performed at a temperature less than 50° C.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein converting at least a portion of said layer of silicon dioxide into said silicon-salt layer comprises performing the following process operation on said layer of silicon dioxide:

NF 3 ( g )+NH 3 ( g )→NH 4 F( g )+NH 4 F.HF( g )  1)

NH 4 F.HF( g )+SiO 2 →(NH 4 ) 2 SiF 6 ( s )+H 2 O( g ).  2)

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein converting at least a portion of said silicon-salt layer to said layer of silicon comprises performing the following process operation on said silicon-salt layer:

(NH 4 ) 2 SiF 6 ( s )+4H + →Si( s )+2NH 3 ( g )+6HF( g ).

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

forming a patterned mask layer above said layer of silicon; and

performing an ion implantation process through said patterned mask layer to form a doped region in said layer of silicon.

16. A method, comprising:

forming a layer of silicon dioxide above a structure;

performing at least one first process operation on said layer of silicon dioxide with a halogen-containing gas to convert at least a portion of said layer of silicon dioxide into a silicon-salt layer, wherein said at least one first process operation is performed at a temperature less than 50° C.; and

performing at least one second process operation on said silicon-salt layer using a gas comprising hydrogen or hydrogen radicals to convert at least a portion of said silicon-salt layer to a layer of silicon, wherein said at least one second process operation is performed at a temperature less than 50° C.

17. The method of claim 16 , further comprising performing a deposition process to form a bulk layer of a silicon-containing material while using said silicon layer as a seed layer.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising converting at least a portion of said layer of silicon to silicon nitride.

19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising introducing a dopant material into at least one of said layer of silicon dioxide or said layer of silicon to thereby form at least one of a doped layer of silicon dioxide or a doped layer of silicon.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein said halogen-containing gas is ammonium hydrogen fluoride gas (NH 4 F.HF).

21. The method of claim 16 , wherein performing said at least one first process operation comprises performing at least the following process operations on said layer of silicon dioxide:

NF 3 ( g )+NH 3 ( g )→NH 4 F( g )+NH 4 F.HF( g )  1)

NH 4 F.HF( g )+SiO 2 →(NH 4 ) 2 SiF 6 ( s )+H 2 O( g ).  2)

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein performing said at least one second process operation on said silicon-salt layer comprises performing at least the following process operation on said silicon-salt layer:

(NH 4 ) 2 SiF 6 ( s )+4H + →Si( s )+2NH 3 ( g )+6HF( g ).

23. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:

forming a patterned mask layer above said layer of silicon; and

performing an ion implantation process through said patterned mask layer to form a doped region in said layer of silicon.