Structural Relaxation Effects in Dry Thermal Silicon Dioxide Films on Silicon

Abstract

In recent papers, work was presented on (i) inert thermal anneals of lowtemperature-grown (highly-stressed) SiO2 films, (ii) two-step oxidations to relate the second-step oxygen transport characteristics to the density of the existing film, and (iii) negative-point oxygen corona-discharge relaxation of low-temperaturegrown SiO2 films. This paper will review some of the previous work, present some more comprehensive results, and highlight the relationship between the SiO2 film structure and transport of oxidant through the film. Oxidant transport through an SiO2 film is found to depend strongly on the state of relaxation of the film.