Patent ID: 8003548

Claim:
A method for forming a gate dielectric layer with reduced leakage current, comprising: (a) providing a silicon substrate; (b) performing a first water pulse on the silicon substrate for at least 3 seconds to create a minimum of 70 percent of surface hydroxyl groups thereon; (c) performing a precursor pulse on the hydroxylated silicon substrate, wherein the precursor reacts with the hydroxyl groups and forms a layer; (d) purging the silicon substrate with an inert carrier gas; (e) exposing the layer to a second water pulse for at least 3 seconds so that the layer has a minimum of 70 percent of surface hydroxyl groups thereon; (f) purging the layer with the inert carrier gas; and (g) repeating steps (c) to (f) until the gate dielectric layer is formed on the silicon substrate.