Effects of chlorine based gettering on the electrical properties of rapid thermal oxidation/nitridation dielectric films

Dielectric films have been grown on single‐crystalline silicon substrates with the thickness ranging from 100 to 180 A at various gas and temperature conditions by using a rapid thermal processing that included an independent nitridation step. The film characteristics and their dependence on the additive contents of the hydrogen chloride gas and the processing time have been studied. The additive concentration of the hydrogen chloride gas in the oxidizing atmosphere were changed from 0% to 8%. By the addition of the hydrogen chloride gas, the oxidation rates and the initial oxide thickness were significantly increased, but after sequential nitridation processes the thickness of the films was nevertheless a little bit varied within 10 A. The effective refractive index of the dielectric films were slightly changed with the additive contents of hydrogen chloride gas, and increased rapidly after nitridation process. All the samples of the dielectric films show the increased breakdown voltages and decreased av...