High Quality 100 Å Thermal Oxide

Abstract

AbstractThe growth of high quality 100 Å thermal oxide is investigated. Different growth conditions including oxidation temperature, oxidation rate, and gas ambient are explored and they all produce good oxides. However, it will be demonstrated that the best oxide with defect density as low as 0.2cm−2, breakdown field ≃ 12 MV/cm and good reproducibility is grown with low temperature (800°C) low rate oxidation in dry oxygen. The midgap interface trap density of this oxide is ∼ 2.0 × 1010eV−1cm−2 obtained from high-frequency and quasi-static C-V data. A model based on physical mechanisms controlling the kinetics of thin oxide growth is developed to understand how the quality of thin oxide is affected by growth conditions and to explain why the low temperature oxidation in dry oxygen yields the best film.