Effect of growth and annealing conditions on interface charge of dry and wet oxides grown using rapid thermal oxidation

Abstract

In this paper we compare fixed and interface trapped charges of dry and wet oxides processed under different conditions. As-grown wet oxides demonstrate a significantly lower density of interface traps (D/sub it/) than as-grown dry oxides. D/sub it/ was found to increase after post growth annealing in an inert ambient particularly for wet oxides. However, D/sub it/ was relatively insensitive to electrical stress for the range of fluence studied. The D/sub it/ spectrum of the wet oxide approached that of the dry oxide as the post-growth annealing temperature was increased, and no difference in D/sub it/ of wet and dry oxides was observed after a 1100 C/30 s anneal. In contrast, positive fixed charge density (Q/sub f/) was found to decrease with annealing temperature for both dry and wet oxides. This behavior is consistent with previous reported results. No observable effect of growth or annealing conditions on charge trapping properties was observed for any of the oxides.