the dangling bonds of si atoms at the surface are terminated in a third step fig1 b iii a hydrogen related process of chloride removal and gaseous oxide growth takes place that produces an oxide layer 65 of uniform thickness over the exposed surface of si mesa 50 as indicated by arrows 70 in accordance with one or more embodiments of the present invention oxide growth methods to form gate oxides that may be used in floating gate transistors are described below where the resulting gate oxide has uniform thickness under the floating gate and over the channel region controlled by the floating gate fig2 illustrates schematically one embodiment of the oxide growth method 100 of this invention after the silicon wafer is subjected to any prior process steps 110 the next step is a pre clean 120 of the silicon substrate pre clean step 120 may use any of the standard accepted methods for cleaning silicon as described above this may leave the substrate in a hydrophobic or a hydrophilic state hydrophilic silicon substrates may be less prone to attract contamination because a very thin oxide layer remains which may also be less attractive to chloride ions therefore pre cleaning 120 may also include additional process steps to remove the remnant oxide layer hydrophobic silicon substrates may be more attractive to contamination as well as chloride ions so that pre cleaning 120 may also include additional process steps to remove contamination in preparation for chloride bonding first a liquid chemical treatment for.