Thermal processing furnace, gas delivery system therefor, and methods for delivering a process gas thereto

A method for processing a plurality of substrates with nitrous oxide in a processing space, the method comprising:

• heating the substrates to a process temperature;
• metering a first stream of the nitrous oxide flowing in a first delivery line to establish a first flow rate in the first delivery line;
• metering a second stream of the nitrous oxide flowing in a second delivery line to establish a second flow rate in the second delivery line;
• selecting the first and second flow rates for the nitrous oxide to establish a peak gas temperature of a process gas containing the nitrous oxide in the processing space upon injection and thereby control formation of reaction by-products from the nitrous oxide;
• communicating the first and second streams of the nitrous oxide from the first and second delivery lines to respective first and second injectors inside the processing space;
• injecting the first and second streams of the nitrous oxide from the first and second injectors into the processing space at the respective first and second flow rates to establish a flow field for an exothermic reaction that provides the peak gas temperature independent of the process temperature of the substrates;
• and
• growing a dielectric layer with a nitrogen content on each of the substrates using the process gas.