Patent ID: 6214712
Filing Date: 2001-04-10
Classification: C23C,C30B,H01L

Abstract:
A process for growing a metal oxide thin film upon a semiconductor surface with a physical vapor deposition technique wherein constituent atoms of the metal oxide to be deposited upon the semiconductor surface are moved toward the semiconductor surface in a controlled environment, the process comprising the steps of:developing an ultra-high vacuum environment about the semiconductor surface which has been cleaned to atomic cleanliness and wherein the primary vapor constituent of the high-vacuum environment is water;heating the semiconductor surface to an elevated temperature and introducing hydrogen gas into the high-vacuum environment so that the surface temperature and the ratio of hydrogen pressure to water pressure at the semiconductor surface are high enough to render the formation of native oxides on the semiconductor surface thermodynamically unstable yet are not so high that the formation of the desired metal oxide on the semiconductor surface is thermodynamically unstable;directing constituent atoms of the metal oxide to be deposited upon the semiconductor surface toward the semiconductor surface by a physical vapor deposition technique so that the atoms come to rest upon the semiconductor surface as a thin film of metal oxide so that there exists substantially no native oxide at the semiconductor surface/thin film interface.