In situ spectroscopic ellipsometry is a useful tool for characterizing the kinetics of aluminum oxide growth. Thin aluminum films were deposited on thermally oxidized silicon wafers and dosed with oxygen. Real-time in situ ellipsometry was used to monitor both natural and UV oxidation processes using different oxygen pressures. The raw data was subsequently fit to an optical multi-layer model. The ellipsometric data was sensitive to changes in the oxide layer thickness of much less than a monolayer. With the time scale of our data acquisition two different growth regimes were seen in the fitted data in agreement with the Mott-Cabrera model of oxidation. The growth rate became larger with the assistance of light from the UV lamp.

Date Published: 2 November 2000
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 4099, Optical Metrology Roadmap for the Semiconductor, Optical, and Data Storage Industries, (2 November 2000); doi: 10.1117/12.405822

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4099:
Optical Metrology Roadmap for the Semiconductor, Optical, and Data Storage Industries
Ghanim A. Al-Jumaily; Angela Duparre; Bhanwar Singh, Editor(s)