Advantages of the hot-shielding technology with regard to ultra thin RTO quality

The requirement for best gate oxide integrity and oxide preparation at lowest possible thermal budget is in many cases not compatible. It has been reported that Si/SiO/sub 2/ interfacial roughness and interface width decreases with increasing growth temperature between 800/spl deg/C and 1200/spl deg/C for rapid thermal oxidation (RTO). Decreased interface width and roughness result in better device performance. Other studies have shown that high energy photons may cause a higher density of localized traps in oxide leading to an enhancement in soft breakdown occurence of ultra thin gate oxides. The aim of this study is the improvement of oxide quality by variation of process temperature and dilution of the reactive oxygen. Moreover these variations are done with a hot-shielding system.