SUPERIOR DAMAGE-IMMUNITY OF THIN OXIDES THERMALLY GROWN ON REACTIVE-ION-ETCHED SILICON SURFACE IN N2O AMBIENT

Thin oxides thermally grown on reactive-ion-etched silicon surfaces in N2O ambient have been studied. As compared with pure oxides grown on the etched silicon in dry oxygen, N2O-grown oxides exhibit significant ly stronger immunity to the RIE-induced damages. A great improvement i n both time-zero-dielectric-breakdown (TZDB) and time-dependent-breakd own (TDDB) characteristics is observed for the N2O-grown oxides on RIE -treated silicon surfaces. Accelerated tests have shown that the N2O o xide grown on the RIE silicon surface can achieve a lifetime longer th an the pure oxide grown on the correspondingly etched silicon surface with a factor over 10(8).