Kinetics and Oxide Properties of Silicon Oxidation in O 2 ‐ H 2 ‐ HCl Mixtures

Abstract

The thermal oxidation kinetics of silicon in mixtures and the electrical properties of the silicon dioxide films grown in the mixtures have been studied in order to characterize the effect of and on silicon oxidation. Oxidations were carried out at 1100°C over a wide range of and flow rates at a constant flow rate. The partial pressures of , ,, , and were calculated from equilibrium chemical thermodynamics. Parabolic rate constants were calculated from the and partial pressures and the values were in quite good agreement with the experimental data. But the experimental data showed that linear rate constants were greatly dependent on partial pressure. The effective mobile ion density depended only on the partial pressure and was independent of the partial pressure. The effective mobile ion density was rapidly decreased with increasing before it approached a minimum constant value. The fixed charge density also depended only on , but the decreasing rate with increasing was small.