Low temperature oxidation of silicon by electric discharge in oxidizing atmosphere

Low temperature oxidation of silicon mesa transistors and alloy diodes is being undertaken by us for improving and stabilizing the characteristics. Oxidation at low temperature is more favorable to increase the freedom of design of silicon devices than at high temperature. For low temperature oxidation it seems necessary to make oxygen be chemically active to combine with silicon by some method, such as making it a dissociated state or ozone. Therefore, the devices are held in wet oxygen atmosphere between glass-covered electrodes which are connected to a source of high-voltage AC (saturable transformer). Following several hours oxidation in a quartz tube at atmospheric pressure and 300° C, results indicate that this method is most effective to increase the low current alpha of silicon mesa transistors up to that of silicon planar transistors and to decrease the saturation current of silicon p-n junctions.