Patent ID: 7001810

Claim:
A method for manufacturing an integrated circuit comprising a nonvolatile memory, the method comprising: (a) forming a conductive first layer containing primarily silicon, the first layer being to provide one or more floating gates for the nonvolatile memory; (b) nitriding a silicon-containing surface of the first layer with a low temperature, low energy, surface nitriding process such as Remote Plasma Nitridation (RPN) or Decoupled Plasma Nitridation (DPN) so as to incorporate nitrogen atoms into said silicon-containing surface of the first layer at relatively low temperature and relatively low energy; (c) subjecting the nitrided surface to a thermally oxidizing atmosphere so as to thereby form a thermally-grown silicon oxide at the nitrided surface, the combination of the thermally-grown silicon oxide and incorporated nitrogen atoms defining at least part of a first dielectric of the nonvolatile memory; and (d) forming a conductive second layer separated by the first dielectric from conductive material of the first layer, the conductive second layer providing one or more control gates for the nonvolatile memory.