Patent ID: 6017806
Filing Date: 2000-01-25
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device which comprises the steps of:(a) providing a partially fabricated semiconductor device having an interface of silicon with an electrically insulating dielectric in which dangling bond sites at said interface are occupied by hydrogen and wherein all processing steps involving heating of the device to a temperature above the bond site-hydrogen dissociation temperature for a sufficient time to cause substantial dissociation of hydrogen and deuterium, if present, from the dangling bond sites having been completed;(b) immersing said device in a deuterium ambient which is inert to the processing step then being conducted and to processing steps to be conducted for a sufficient time to permit the structure in the region of said interface to contain an excess of deuterium atoms;(c) heating said device to a temperature above the dissociation temperature of hydrogen-bond site bonds for a time sufficient to cause substantial dissociation of hydrogen and/or deuterium from the bond site in the region of said interface while an excess of deuterium from step (b) remains in the structure in the region of said interface;(d) lowering the temperature of said device to below the hydrogen-bond site dissociation temperature while said excess of deuterium exists in the region of said interface to permit said deuterium at said interface to bond with bond sites from which hydrogen and/or deuterium have been dissociated; and(e) completing fabrication of said device without raising the temperature of said device in the region of said interface to the dissociation temperature of said bond site and deuterium.