Silicon Oxidation in the Thin Oxide Regime

Thermal oxidation of silicon in the thin regime is of vital importance to VLSI device engineers because thin layers of SiO₂ are exclusively used as the gate dielectric for high performance of MOS devices. There exists a number of models to explain this kinetics of oxidation. However there is a considerable variance among the reported rate constants, which are supposed to describe the oxidation process. Rather than arriving at an alternative model, the present study aims at simulation of existing models of oxidation in dry oxygen, with a set of experimental data and arrive at the best possible model and provide accurate rate constants for oxidation in dry oxygen. These experimental data have been obtained, earlier, using high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and ellipsometry techniques to measure thickness of silicon oxide, grown at 800°C in dry oxygen, in the thickness range of 2 to 20 nm.