Patent ID: 7297597

Claim:
A method of forming an oxide dielectric of an in-process ONO-type memory cell stack where an exposed top portion of the ONO-type memory cell stack includes a nitride, the method comprising: (a) subjecting the nitride-containing exposed top portion of the ONO-type memory cell stack to a dry ISSG process (In-Situ Steam Generation) where the dry ISSG process comprises: (a.1) flowing molecular oxygen (O 2 ) towards the stack; and (a.2) flowing molecular hydrogen (H 2 ) towards the stack, where the volumetric flow ratio of the H 2 to the O 2 is less than about 0.2; and (a.3) heating the exposed top portion of the ONO-type memory cell stack to a temperature of about 850° C. or higher so as to thereby encourage production from the flowing oxygen (O 2 ) and the flowing hydrogen (H 2 ) of one or more oxidizing radicals at the locality of the exposed top portion.