ELEG 422/622

HW4, Chapter 4, Oxidation

1. A 100 nm gate oxide is required for some MOS technology. It has been decided that the oxidation will
be carried out at 1000 C, in dry oxygen. If there is no initial oxide, for how long should the oxidation be
done? Is the oxidation in the linear regime, the parabolic regime, or between the two?
According to table 4.1 in the text, at 1000 C in dry oxygen:

m2
= 0.165 m, = 0.0117
, = 0.37 hr
hr
2

+ = ( + )

2
(0.100 m)2 + 0.165 m 0.100 m

+
=
=
0.370 hr
m2

0.0117
hr
= 1.90 hr
Since , this oxidation process is not clearly in the linear nor parabolic growth regime. Therefore
it is not appropriate to use either of the approximations below:

( + ), linear regime

( + ) , parabolic regime
Note the use of = 0.37 hr; in the case of dry oxidation, the parameter can be used to approximately
account for the rapid growth regime, which is the anomalously fast oxide growth rate at the beginning
of the oxidation process on a new silicon wafer.

ELEG 422/622

HW4, Chapter 4, Oxidation

2. Repeat problem 1 if the oxidation is done in a wet O2 ambient.

According to table 4.1 in the text, at 1000 C in wet oxygen:

m2
= 0.226 m, = 0.287
, = 0 hr
hr

2
(0.100 m)2 + 0.226 m 0.100 m

+
=
=
= 0.114 hr
m2

0.287
hr
= 6.8 min
Note that this is ~17X faster than the dry oxidation at the same temperature. Also notice that no values
for are provided in table 4.1 for wet oxidation; because the wet process proceeds much faster, the
rapid growth regime can be ignored from the calculation. Therefore we use = 0 in the case of wet
oxidation.

Table 4.1 from your text

ELEG 422/622

HW4, Chapter 4, Oxidation

3. It has been decided to grow the oxide in problem 1 in two steps. A 50 nm oxide will be grown first,
then the wafers will be re-oxidized to a total thickness of 100 nm. If the oxidations are carried out at
1000 C in dry O2, calculate the time required for each of the oxidations.
Again from table 4.1 we have:

m2
= 0.165 m, = 0.0117
, = 0.37 hr
hr
We first want to produce and oxide thickness of
Then the time required is:

= 0.050 m

2
(0.050 m)2 + 0.165 m 0.050 m

+
=
0.37 hr
=
m2

0.0117
hr
= 0.919 hr 0.37 hr = 0.549 hr = 32.9 min
Now we want to grow another 50 nm of oxide, for a final thickness of
We must calculate the parameter to account for the initial thickness of oxide:

0 = 0.05 m, =

02 +0

= 0.10 m

(0.05m)2 +0.165 m0.05m

0.0117

m2
hr

= 0.919 hr

2
(0.100 m)2 + 0.165 m 0.100 m

+
=
=
0.919 hr
m2

0.0117
hr
= 2.27 hr 0.919 hr = 1.35 hr = 80.8 min
Note that the total time is

0.549 hr + 1.35 hr = 1.919 hr,

Which is about the same as we found in problem 1, where the oxide thickness was grown all at once.
Note that the second half of the oxide took ~2.46X as long to grow as the first half. Why is that?

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HW4, Chapter 4, Oxidation

4. It is necessary to grow a 1 m field oxide to isolate the transistors in a certain bipolar technology. Due
to concerns with dopant diffusion and stacking fault formation, the oxidation must be carried out at
1050 C. If the process is carried out in a wet ambient at atmospheric pressure, calculate the required
oxidation time. Assume that the parabolic rate coefficient is proportional to the oxidation pressure.
Calculate the oxidation time required at 5 and at 20 atm.
No values for wet oxidation at 1050 C are provided in table 4.1, so lets use figure 4.2 and 4.3 to get the
oxidation rate constants. Note: these data are for (111) silicon; no wafer orientation was stated in the
problem.

0.4 um2/hr
2 um/hr

Figures 4.2 and 4.3: Rate constants for thermal oxidation using (111) silicon

~2

m
m2
, ~0.4
, = 0 hr
hr
hr

m2
0.4

hr
=
=
m = 0.2m

hr

+ (1 m)2 + 0.2 m 1 m
=
=
= 3.0 hr
m2

0.4
hr

ELEG 422/622

HW4, Chapter 4, Oxidation

Note that B is directly proportional to the partial pressure of the reactant, =

. As such, we can

model the oxidation process at high pressure by simply scaling the parabolic rate constant B by the
pressure in atm. Therefore we have
pressure (atm)

parabolic rate constant (

1
5
20

0.4
2
8

(5 atm) =

m2
hr

time (hr)
3
0.6
0.15

2
+ (1 m)2 + 0.2 m 1 m

=
= 0.6 hr
m2

2
hr

(20 atm) =

2 +

(1 m)2 +0.2 m1 m
m2

8 hr

= 0.15 hr

As you can see, the oxidation time scales inversely with pressure. Another way to solve this problem
would be to use figure 4.5, which shows oxidation rate coefficients at different pressures (shown in the
following problem).

ELEG 422/622

HW4, Chapter 4, Oxidation

5. A gate oxide is grown in 640 torr of water vapor at 1000 C. The oxide is grown on a bare (100) silicon
wafer. The oxidation time is 2 mins.
(a) Assuming the tau () is zero, use the Deal-Grove model to predict the oxide thickness that would be
grown.
(b) When this process is run, the oxide thickness is actually found to be 60 nm, but the oxidation rate
after 2 mins agrees with the B/A ratio. Find the value of that should be used for the process conditions
to take into account the rapid growth regime.

This problem calls for (100) silicon. Figures 4.2 and 4.3 provide rate constants for thermal oxidation
using (111) silicon, so well use the data in figure 4.5 instead.

0.6 um/hr

0.3 um2/hr

m
m2
~0.6
, ~0.3
, = 0 hr
hr
hr

ELEG 422/622

HW4, Chapter 4, Oxidation

m2
0.3

hr = 0.5 m
=
=
m

0.6

hr
+ 2 + 4( + )
() =
2
=

0.5 m + (0.5 m)2 + 4 0.3

= 0.0193 m 19 nm

m2
(0.0333 )
hr

When this process is run, the oxide thickness is actually found to be 60 nm, but the oxidation rate after 2
minutes actually agrees with the B/A ratio (this means that we are in the linear growth regime). If is
not zero, then

( + ) =

0.06 m
=
m = 0.1 hr = 6 min

0.6
hr

Since = 2 min (stated in the problem), = 4 min in this case. Presumably this is a correction for the
rapid growth regime.