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New Perspectives on Surface Passivation: Understanding the Si-Al2O3 Interface pp 79–96Cite as

Effect of Post-Deposition Thermal Processing

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Abstract

The quality of surface passivation provided by Al\(_2\)O\(_3\) depends not only on the deposition conditions, but also on subsequent thermal processing. Indeed for Al\(_2\)O\(_3\) films deposited at lower temperatures, some thermal treatment is generally required to “activate” the passivation. This step most commonly takes the form of an anneal performed at a temperature of 400–\({500}{\,}^{\circ }\mathrm{C}\), typically in an \({\text {N}}_2\) ambient. In Chap. 5 it was shown that the APCVD Al\(_2\)O\(_3\) films examined here also benefit from such an anneal, though those deposited at temperatures already above the annealing temperature benefit to a much lesser extent.

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

—Harry S. Truman

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Several authors have reported significant blistering of Al\(_2\)O\(_3\) or Al\(_2\)O\(_3\)/SiN\(_\mathrm{{x}}\) stacks during high-temperature processing, particularly for thicker layers [5, 8–13]. However, no conclusive correlation between visible blistering and changes in surface passivation has been reported. The evidence strongly suggests that blistering is at best an accompanying phenomenon of depassivation, and not its cause, except perhaps in extreme cases. More often it bears no relation to passivation at all. In this work we are concerned primarily with changes in surface passivation, and therefore we do not examine blistering in detail.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research School of Engineering, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Lachlan E. Black

  2. Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Lachlan E. Black

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  1. Lachlan E. Black
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Black, L.E. (2016). Effect of Post-Deposition Thermal Processing. In: New Perspectives on Surface Passivation: Understanding the Si-Al2O3 Interface. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32521-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32521-7_6

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-32521-7

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