What is Thermal Oxidation?
Thermal Oxidation is the process of growing a film called Silicon Dioxide, more commonly referred to as Oxide. Thermal oxidation of silicon is easily achieved by heating a silicon wafer to temperatures typically in the range of 900C to 1200C in either a steam or oxygen environment, after which a chemical reaction will take place. In the simplest terms Oxide is “Silicon Rust” on the surface of a silicon substrate. The fact that silicon can be oxidized is one reason it is so widely used in chip manufacturing.
