Patent ID: 7592190

Claim:
A method of evaluating characteristics of an insulating film, the insulating film being formed of an insulative inorganic material as a main material, the insulative inorganic material containing silicon and oxygen, and the insulating film containing hydrogen atoms, the method comprising the steps of: analyzing the insulating film to which an electric field has never been applied by Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy; comparing intensity of an H 2 fragment with intensity of an OH fragment, the intensity of the H 2 fragment and the intensity of the OH fragment being measured at a state where the insulating film is heated at a temperature in the range of 500 to 1000° C.; evaluating the characteristics of the insulating film on the basis of the comparison result; and wherein in the comparing step the comparison result is obtained using the ratio ([OH]/[H 2 ]) of the intensity of the H 2 fragment [H 2 ] and the intensity of the OH fragment [OH] at a predetermined temperature within the range of 500 to 1000° C. or the integration value (Σ([OH]/[H 2 ])) of the ratio ([OH]/[H 2 ]) as an index, and in the evaluating step the characteristics of the insulating film is evaluated on the basis of the comparison result.