Gate Oxide Reliability in a Sealed Interface Local Oxidation Scheme

The influence of process steps, preceding the gate oxidation, on gate oxide integrity in a Sealed Interface Local Oxidation (SILO) scheme, is studied. Bird's beak etchback procedure and double sacrificial oxidation appeared to have great effect on defect densities, measured by constant current (Q
bd
) technique. By means of ramped field (E
bd
) measurements no influence of field oxidation temperature, bird's beak etchback and sacrificial oxidation procedure was seen.