Brief Introduction of Thermal Oxidation Technology

With CMOS device feature size down-scaling, semiconductor industry encounters many new challenges. Especially when critical dimension shrank to 28nm node and beyond, new applications and higher demands requested on the existing films for better uniformity and quality of oxidation. This paper reviewed the development of oxidation types, role of Chlorine during oxidation, procedures of oxidation process, as well as influencing factors such as pressure control method, temperature distribution analysis on wafer level, and environment effect on process results. Growth model of oxidation film also introduced in this paper, from the well-known Deal-Grove model to Massoud model.