During deposition, the thermal energy drives the desorption of hydrogen and chlorine species, promoting dense Si-N network formation, which inherently introduces high tensile intrinsic stress within the deposited film [P4].
The pad oxide grown in the preceding step acts as a critical strain and stress buffer layer to prevent mechanical defects (such as cracks, dislocations, or stacking faults) from propagating into the underlying silicon substrate due to the high intrinsic tensile stress of the …
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