Electrical characterization of thin SiO/sub 2/ films created by negative-point oxygen corona discharge processing

Corona-discharge processing to create SiO/sub 2/ layers has been the subject of several previous publications. The research showed that low-temperature (600/spl deg/C-800/spl deg/C) corona-processed SiO/sub 2/ films having thickness /spl sim/1000 /spl Aring/ had physical characteristics comparable to those obtained for films grown by standard thermal oxidation at higher temperatures (1000/spl deg/C-1200/spl deg/C). Also considering the temperature of processing, it was found that densities of fixed oxide charges and midgap interface states of the films were lower (better) than expected. In this report, thin oxide films (/spl sim/200 /spl Aring/) are grown using a negative point-to-plane corona discharge. A thorough electrical characterization is initiated in order to determine whether a corona-based technique has potential application in thin gate oxides for MOS devices. Preliminary results indicate that the electrical properties and reliability of corona-processed oxides may be favorable.