Reduction of mechanical stress in shallow trench isolation process
 A method of minimizing mechanical stress generated during the trench-forming/trench-filling process steps in a standard shallow trench isolation (STI) process is provided. This is achieved by forming trenches with a more sloped and smoother profile, and/or limiting the trench depth to be less than 0.4 .mu.m, and/or reducing or increasing the trench densification temperature, and/or performing the densification step after the chemical-mechanical polishing step. In addition, a furnace TEOS oxide film is used as the trench-filling material. 
Lattice Semiconductor Corporation
Y H
Y10S H01L
additional inventional
Sunil D. Robert H. Xiao-Yu
Mehta Tu Li