Furnace and RTA annealing of sputtered silicon oxide

Sputtered oxide is an attractive technique for gate oxide deposition in thin film transistors. Good interface properties have been reported in as sputtered oxide, but interface states can be further reduced by high temperature treatment. It has been shown as well that interface properties of low temperature thermal oxide can achieve the best condition if annealed in the temperature range 850-950°C. Also, less positive charge is trapped in thermal oxide during the electrical stress if it was annealed at temperatures below 950°C. Stability of sputtered oxide is an important issue and there are no reports on this matter. However we have found that it can be affected and controlled by sputtering condition, sputtering gas composition and postdeposition annealing. In this report we pay attention to furnace and RTA annealing of sputtered oxide and its stability after high current stress