Thin oxides of silicon

Details Thin oxides of silicon Thin oxides of silicon

1998-07-29

2001-04-24

Nelms, David (Department: 2818)

Semiconductor device manufacturing: process

Coating of substrate containing semiconductor region or of...

Multiple layers

C438S770000, C438S779000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06221789

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to formation of oxides of silicon, and more particularly to the formation of thin oxides for use in microelectronic devices.
2. Background
Advances in semiconductor manufacturing technology have led to the integration of millions of circuit elements, such as transistors, on a single integrated circuit (IC). Not only have interconnect line widths become smaller, but so have the dimensions of metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs). MOSFETs are also commonly referred to simply as FETs.
It has been known that in order to manufacture smaller and smaller FETs with desirable electrical characteristics, the effective thickness of the gate insulator layer had to be scaled along with the linear dimensions of these FETs. As the linear dimensions of FETs have scaled down into the deep submicron region, the requirement of forming the correspondingly extremely thin gate insulator layers has become a major challenge for semiconductor manufacturers.
Electrical, mechanical and manufacturing requirements for gate insulating layers include, but are not limited to, low density of interface states, low defect density, and good uniformity.
What is needed is a method of forming ultra thin oxide layers on silicon substrates, while simultaneously achieving a low density of interface states.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly, a dry/wet oxidation process that produces very thin oxides of silicon, formed on silicon substrates, includes pushing wafers at a particular range of speeds, into a furnace at a particular range of temperatures, sequentially oxidizing the wafers in varying chemical ambients, and operating an external chlorine compound generator coupled to the furnace.
In a particular embodiment, a first portion of an oxide stack is formed in an oxygen
itrogen ambient, a second portion of an oxide stack is formed in a carbon dioxide/hydrogen chloride/oxygen ambient, and a third portion of an oxide stack is formed by a wet oxidation. The second portion of the oxide stack is formed in the presence of a chlorine compound when 1,2-dichloroethylene is treated with heat and oxygen to produce carbon dioxide and hydrogen chloride gas that is then introduced into the furnace.


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