Ultrathin chemically grown oxide film as a dopant diffusion barrier in semiconductor devices

摘要

The invention is a chemically grown oxide layer which prevents dopant diffusion between semiconductor layers. The chemically grown oxide layer may be so thin that it does not form a barrier to electrical conduction, and thus may be formed within active devices such as diodes or bipolar transistors. Such a chemically grown oxide film is advantageously used to prevent dopant diffusion in a vertically oriented polysilicon diode formed in a monolithic three dimensional memory array.