Effects of hydrogen annealing on low temperature grown oxides on silicon by negative point-to-point corona discharge oxidation

The effects of hydrogen annealing in the 400°C-600°C range on oxides grown on silicon in 100°C-300°C temperature range by negative point-to-plane corona discharge were examined. This growth technique results in significant oxide growth rates, even at these low growth temperatures. The lowest interface state density for unannealed samples was obtained for samples grown at 100°C. Among the annealed samples the lowest interface state density of 7.7×10¹¹ cm^-2 in 0.05-0.5 eV range above the valence band edge for samples grown at 300°C. Annealing at 600°C gave the highest values for interface state densities, whereas the 500°C annealed samples showed intermediate values with only a slight improvement over annealed cases. The changes in the interface state densities is attributed to the behavior of Si-H bonds at different annealing temperatures. The rate of change in the flat band voltage of 3.05, 8.2, and 10.2 mV/°C was obtained in the annealing temperature range of 400°C-600°C for the oxide growth temperatures of 100°C, 200°C, and 300°C respectively