Evaluation of surface generation velocity of sidewall oxide interfaces formed by dry etching for shallow trench isolation

The generation velocity of the vertical sidewall of a shallow trench isolat ed wafer has been measured using a simple capacitance-transient technique. We found high generation velocities at the sidewall of circa 2570 cm s(-1) reduced to 1040 cm s(-1) after hydrogen annealing representative of a degra ded interface caused by the dry etch process. The measurement technique is shown to be a very simple and effective evaluation tool for process test an d optimisation. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.