Stress in “cathodic” plasma oxides as a function of processing parameters

Optical interferometric determination of in-plane residual stresses in SiO films on silicon substrates

“…Residual .stresses can induce deflections, transmit defects to the underlying substrate, and acceler-ate thermally induced failures such as creep. Out-of-plane residual stresses of sufficient magnitude can cause out-of plane deflections of semiconductor and ceramic substrates (Danksher and Reisman, 1991 ), produce interfacial stresses at the film-substrate interfaces so that debonding occurs, and residual stresses can influence the yield of devices if the stresses initiate or contribute to the propagation of microcracks (O'Brien et al, 1990). These manifestations of residual stresses influence the electrical properties (Black, 1970) and reliability, as well as the manufacturability, because increasing circuit density requires planar surfaces.…”