Introduction of a surface charge analysis instrument into the microelectronic engineering curricula at the Rochester Institute of Technology

A SCA-2000 Surface Charge Analyzer has been loaned to the Microelectronic Engineering Department at RIT for use in undergraduate laboratories and research projects. To illustrate the process monitoring capability of the SCA, a designed experiment was performed to study the effects of variations in post-oxidation anneal and pull temperature on total oxide charge (Q_ox). The SCA measurements on the as grown oxide were compared to C-V results from capacitors fabricated on the same films. Although absolute values of Q_ox did not match, an overall correlation between the two sets of data was observed. It is hypothesized that the lower Q_ox values observed with C-V are the result of hydrogen passivation of Q_it