Method and apparatus for improved gate oxide uniformity with reducing system contaminants

A method for improving a uniformity of a thermally grown silicon dioxide layer comprising the steps of:

• providing a furnace system for growing oxide layers comprising gas reactant feed lines further comprising gas flow pathways for providing gas reactants to a reactor chamber said reactor chamber equipped for heating semiconductor wafers to thermally grow a silicon dioxide layer;
• providing at least one silicon semiconductor wafer comprising exposed portions of silicon within the reactor chamber;
• thermally growing a layer over the exposed silicon portions comprising silicon dioxide according to a thermal oxide growing process;
• exposing the gas reactant feed lines to reactant gases during at least one of the step of thermally growing a layer and a cleaning process following the step of thermally growing a layer;
• and,
• purging the gas flow pathways to bypass the reactor chamber with at least one purge gas source comprising an inert gas to remove residual reactant gas contaminants to improve a subsequently thermally grown silicon dioxide layer.