IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Electronics Wednesday Sessions
       Session EL-WeM

Paper EL-WeM6
Non-thermal SiO@sub 2@ Film Growth on Si(100) using Laser-generated O(@super 1@D) and O(@super 3@P)

Wednesday, October 31, 2001, 10:00 am, Room 124

Session: Si Surface Dynamics and Reactions
Presenter: T.C. Coulter, University of Washington
Authors: T.C. Coulter, University of Washington
A.C. Tuan, University of Washington
W.P. Hess, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
J.W. Rogers, Jr, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Y. Ono, Sharp Labs of America
Correspondent: Click to Email
Thermal oxidation of silicon by O@sub 2@ or H@sub 2@O at high temperature (usually 800-1000°C) is currently used to achieve device-quality films for microelectronic applications. These high temperatures can degrade other device characteristics. As device dimensions shrink, it becomes even more important to keep processing temperatures low. Thus, many alternative low-temperature oxidation methods have been explored. A successful low-temperature method must produce thin silicon oxide layers with good uniformity, abrupt interfaces, and device-quality electrical characteristics. In order to develop the best low temperature deposition strategy, it is necessary to understand the details of the oxidation mechanism. High-temperature thermal oxidation studies suggest that atomic oxygen, and not molecular O@sub 2@, may be the oxidizing species diffusing through the oxide to react at the silicon interface. Low temperature plasma oxidation proceeds faster than thermal oxidation, which is often attributed to the presence of charged and neutral atomic species. Recent studies using a modified plasma for SiO@sub 2@ growth suggest that excited oxygen atoms in the @super 1@D state may play an important role in oxidation.@footnote 1@ To elucidate the roles of excited and ground state neutral oxygen atoms in silicon oxidation, we have used photolytically generated ground state O(@super 3@P) and excited state O(@super 1@D) atoms to oxidize Si(100) at low temperature. In contrast to plasma oxidation, where many oxygen species of differing energy and charge are present, we can study the contributions of O(@super 3@P) and O(@super 1@D) individually, and compare their kinetics and oxidation mechanism. The growth rate and oxidation kinetics were studied with in-situ ellipsometry, and oxide stoichiometry and interface quality were determined with XPS. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@M. Hirayama, K. Sekine, Y. Saito, and T. Ohmi. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. 47(7), 1370 (2000).