Interfacial properties of SiO2/n-type 3C-SiC structures fabricated by rapid thermal processing have been investigated for various oxidizing and annealing atmospheres. In this work, we show that the growth of SiO2 films can be, at least, 1 order of magnitude faster than in a conventional furnace. Besides being fast, this technique provides oxide films with quality comparable to those grown in a classical furnace. Analyzing the depth profiles of N and C species in the SiO2 films and the electrical properties of the oxides, we found that incorporating N-2 during the growth in O-2 or annealing under N-2 is not favorable for the improvement of the SiO2/3C-SiC interface. Instead, we demonstrated that combining the beneficial effect of N2O oxide growth with the one of Ar anneal, the density of interface traps is reduced and leads to significantly improved oxide quality. (c) 2010 The Electrochemical Society. [DOI: 10.1149/1.3515167] All rights reserved.