COMPARING MODELS FOR THE GROWTH OF SILICON-RICH OXIDES (SRO)

The relative advantages of several methods for modeling the growth of Silicon-Rich Oxide (SRO) films are compared, The methods are a respons e surface model, a physical model based on chemical kinetics, and neur al network models, The physical model provides more insight and greate r predictive ability, Neural network models provide better fits to com plex response surfaces with minimal data and can be used successfully in the absence of a theoretical model. The risks of prediction by neur al networks outside their training domain are demonstrated.