The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 03, 2010
Filed:
Feb. 28, 2006
Tien Ying Luo, Austin, TX (US);
Rajesh A. Rao, Austin, TX (US);
Tien Ying Luo, Austin, TX (US);
Rajesh A. Rao, Austin, TX (US);
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
An insulating layer formed by deposition is annealed in the presence of radical oxygen to reduce bond defects. A substrate is provided. An oxide layer is deposited overlying the substrate. The oxide layer has a plurality of bond defects. The oxide layer is annealed in the presence of radical oxygen to modify a substantial portion of the plurality of bond defects by using oxygen atoms. The anneal, in one form, is an in-situ steam generation (ISSG) anneal. In one form, the insulating layer overlies a layer of charge storage material, such as nanoclusters, that form a gate structure of a semiconductor storage device. The ISSG anneal repairs bond defects by oxidizing defective silicon bonds in the oxide layer when the oxide layer is silicon dioxide.