Renesas Technology Corp.

Kokusai Electric Co., Ltd.

Toshiya Uenishi

Norio Suzuki

Hideo Miura

Satoshi Meguro

Masataka Kato

Masaharu Kubo

Yasuhiro Inokuchi

Fumihide Ikeda

Tomoji Watanabe

Nobuyuki Mise

Yoshihiko Sakurai

Yohsuke Inoue

Toshiyuki Uchino

To suppress oxidation of the inner walls of element isolation grooves otherwise occurring during thermal oxidation processes, a nitrogen introducing layer, that has a lower diffusion coefficient relative to an oxidizing agent, is formed at the surface portion of a silicon oxide film buried within an element isolation groove. This nitrogen introduced layer functions as a barrier layer for precluding the oxidizer (such as oxygen, water or the like) in vapor phase from diffusing into the silicon oxide film during thermal processing steps. The nitrogen introduced layer is formed by performing nitrogen ion implantation into the entire surface of a substrate and subsequently applying thermal processing to the substrate to thereby activate the nitrogen that has been doped.

Semiconductor integrated circuit device and method of fabricating the same

A semiconductor wafer processing apparatus comprises a reaction furnace capable of heating inside thereof, a wafer mount for mounting a semiconductor wafer thereon and a transfer device. The wafermount includes an opening which is greater than the semiconductor wafer and which has a circle shape or a shape substantially similar to an outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer, and includes a wafer supporting portion projecting inwardly of the opening for supporting the semiconductor wafer. The transfer device is capable of holding the wafer mount outside the semiconductor wafer as viewed from a vertical direction, and transferring the wafer mount carrying the semiconductor wafer thereon substantially horizontally into and/or out from the reaction furnace.

Semiconductor wafer processing apparatus for transferring a wafer mount

Growing community of inventors

Akishima, Japan

Toshiya Uenishi