Evidence from transmission electron microscopy for an oxynitride layer in oxidized Si3N4

Microstructural and energy dispersive spectrometry evidence is produced, from transmission electron microscopy, to show that a silicon oxynitride inner layer is produced by the oxidation of silicon nitride in dry oxygen at 1350 C as proposed by Tressler et al. (1989). However, details of the microstructures at the oxide/nitride interface do not agree entirely with the rest of the Tressler model for the oxidation of Si3N4.