Patent ID: 7723242

Claim:
A method for additionally oxidizing a thin-film oxide, the method comprising: providing a substrate; depositing an MyOx (M oxide) layer overlying the substrate, where M is a solid element; treating the MyOx layer to an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) high-density plasma (HDP) source as follows: supplying power to a top electrode at a frequency in the range of 13.56 to 300 megahertz (MHz), and a power density of up to 10 watts per square centimeter (W/cm 2 ); supplying power to a bottom electrode at a frequency in the range of 50 kilohertz to 13.56 MHz, and a power density of up to 3 W/cm 2 ; using an atmosphere pressure in the range of 1 to 500 mTorr; and supplying an oxygen gas; and, forming an MyOk layer in response to the ICP HDP source, where k>x.