Advantage of radical oxidation for improving reliability of ultra-thin gate oxide

This paper focuses attention on the advantage of oxygen radical oxidation by a microwave-excited high-density Kr/O/sub 2/ plasma for improving the disadvantages of conventional thermal oxidation processes using H/sub 2/O and/or O/sub 2/ molecules, and demonstrates that the Kr/O/sub 2/ plasma oxidation process can improve the thickness variation on shallow-trench isolation and integrity of silicon oxide not only on the [100] surface but also on the [111] surface compared to those of conventional thermal oxidation processes.