Room temperature O2 plasma oxidation of Si by electron cyclotron resonance plasma source

Silicon dioxide films were grown using oxygen plasma generated by an electron cyclotron resonance(ECR) plasma source at room temperature. This oxidation temperature is much lower than previously reported plasma oxidation of silicon. We have studied ECR O-2 plasma oxidation mechanism based on the Kim et al.'s model for the various conditions such as oxidation time, substrate temperature, O-2 flow rate, and microwave power. It was found that the critical temperature for pure ECR O-2 plasma oxidation is about 300 degrees C. The oxide film thickness decreases with increasing O-2 how rate and increases non-linearly with increasing microwave power. Also, the breakdown field strength of an ultra-thin oxide film prepared by ECR O-2 plasma was 10 MV/cm, which is comparable to thermally grown oxide at high temperature.