“…Water vapor may oxidize the surfaces of unprotected films or induce particle formation via reaction with process gases and in turn cause localized defects when deposited on semiconductor devices. Water has been identified as a major contaminant in a number of processes which include physical vapor deposition (PVD) [ 3 ], plasma etching of metal films [ 4 ], and chemical vapor deposition [ 5 ]. Consequently, it is estimated that the effect of residual water vapor upon semiconductor processing results in lower device yield rates and reliability failures, costing the semiconductor industry billions of dollars annually [ 6 ].…”