In order to realize a stably propagating flame in a narrow channel, flame instabilities resulting from flame-wall interaction should be avoided. In particular flame quenching is a significant issue in micro combustion devices; quenching is caused either by excessive heat loss or by active radical adsorptions at the wall. In this paper, the relative significance of thermal and chemical effects on flame quenching is examined by means of quenching distance measurement. Emphasis is placed on the effects of surface defect density on flame quenching. To investigate chemical quenching phenomenon, thermally grown silicon oxide plates with well-defined defect distribution were prepared. ion implantation technique was used to control defect density, i.e. the number of oxygen vacancies. It has been found that when the surface temperature is under , the quenching distance is decreased on account of reduced heat loss; as the surface temperature is increased over , however, quenching distance is increased despite reduced heat loss effect. Such abberant behavior is caused by heterogeneous surface reactions between active radicals and surface defects. The higher defect density, the larger quenching distance. This result means that chemical quenching is governed by radical adsorption that can be parameterized by oxygen vacancy density on the surface.