Texas Instruments Corporation

Mark Francis Arendt

Damien Thomas Gilmore

Described examples include a method having steps of forming an isolation pad oxide layer on a substrate and forming and patterning a silicon nitride layer on the isolation pad oxide layer. The method also has steps of oxidizing portions of the substrate not covered by the silicon nitride layer to form a LOCOS layer and oxidizing the silicon nitride layer in an oxidizing ambient containing a chlorine source to form a silicon dioxide layer.

Gate and locos dielectrics grown using locos processing

A semiconductor device including a first dielectric layer and a second dielectric layer is formed by forming an inhibitor layer over a semiconductor material. The inhibitor layer includes at least silicon and nitrogen. The semiconductor material is heated in an oxygen-containing ambient which oxidizes the inhibitor layer and forms the first dielectric layer which includes the oxidized inhibitor layer, and oxidizes the semiconductor material to form the second dielectric layer. The second dielectric layer is thicker than, the first dielectric layer. The first dielectric layer and the second dielectric layer each include at least 90 weight percent silicon dioxide and less than 1 weight percent nitrogen. The first dielectric layer and the second dielectric layer may be used to form gate dielectric layers for a first MOS transistor and a second MOS transistor that operates at a higher voltage than the first MOS transistor.

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Richardson, TX, United States of America

Mark Francis Arendt