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Rapid Thermal Oxidation of Silicon in Mixtures of Oxygen and Nitrous Oxide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2011

John M. Grant  and
Zia Karim
John M. Grant
Affiliation:
Sharp Microelectronics Technology, Inc., 5700 NW Pacific Rim Boulevard, Camas, WA 98607
Zia Karim
Affiliation:
Sharp Microelectronics Technology, Inc., 5700 NW Pacific Rim Boulevard, Camas, WA 98607
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Abstract

Oxidation in nitrous oxide by conventional hot wall furnace processing and by rapid thermnal oxidation (RTO) has been a subject of much interest in recent years. RTO is a fundamentally different process than furnace oxidation, however, and the full effects of this type of processing on the oxidation kinetics are not well understood. Oxidation of silicon by RTO at a variety of pressures, temperatures, and oxidation gas mixtures has been studied. Although at lower temperatures (<850°C) the atmospheric pressure oxidation rate in nitrous oxide is very close to that in oxygen, at higher temperatures the oxidation rate in nitrous oxide is much lower than that in oxygen. At lower pressures in a RTO process, the oxidation rate in nitrous oxide is higher than that in oxygen. The effect of the nitrogen incorporated in the oxide acting as a diffusion barrier has been proposed as the mechanism of temperature dependence for atmospheric pressure oxidation in nitrous oxide. This does not explain the effects seen at lower pressures, however. We propose that some of the intermediate species produced in the decomposition of nitrous oxide into molecular nitrogen, molecular oxygen, and nitric oxide play a role in the initial stages of oxidation by RTO in nitrous oxide.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 429: Symposium N – Rapid Thermal and Integrated Processing V , 1996 , 257
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1996

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