3. The Silicon/Silicon-Dioxide Interface

ONE of the most important things that led to the enormous success and continuous improvement of the CMOS technology are the excellent properties of the thermally grown interface. The quality and abruptness of the interface is of high quality and it has a very low defect density [15].

The amorphous is grown on a pure silicon crystal. The lattice mismatch between those two materials is rather large, but the highly flexible angle of the Si-O-Si bond can compensate for a major part of this mismatch. The remaining, unbound silicon atoms at the interface form the prevalent imperfection of the interface, the silicon dangling bonds.