for the primary passivation (directly on the semiconductor surface), as an original gate dielectric in MOS technology. Today when scaling (dimension of the gate length of the MOS transistor) has progressed below 10 nm, silicon dioxide has been replaced by other dielectric materials like hafnium oxide or similar with higher dielectric constant compared to silicon dioxide, as a dielectric layer between metal (wiring) layers (sometimes up to 8–10) connecting elements and as a second passivation layer (for protecting semiconductor elements and the metallization layers) typically today layered with some other dielectrics like silicon nitride.
for the primary passivation (directly on the semiconductor surface) as an original gate dielectric in MOS technology Today when scaling (dimension of the gate length of the MOS transistor) has progressed below 10 nm, silicon dioxide has been replaced by other dielectric materials like hafnium oxide or similar with higher dielectric constant compared to silicon dioxide, as a dielectric layer between metal (wiring) layers (sometimes up to 8–10) connecting elements and as a second passivation layer (for protecting semiconductor elements and the metallization layers) typically today layered with some other dielectrics like silicon nitride