The effects of hydrogen ͑H 2 ͒ annealing on the thick gate oxide integrity of the U-shaped trench metal-oxide-semiconductor-field effect transistor ͑UMOSFET͒ were investigated. H 2 annealing was performed after trench etch and before gate oxidation. It was observed that the gate oxide integrity ͑GOI͒ of the 400 Å gate oxide grown after H 2 annealing can be comparable to the standard approach ͑soft etch and sacrificial oxidation͒ when the trench width is kept at 0.65 m. When the trench width was reduced to 0.45 m the GOI of H 2 annealing samples was degraded slightly due to faceting at the transition region between trench sidewall and bottom. It was proven that using high-temperature gate oxidation, the UMOSFET with 0.45 m trench width and H 2 annealing has very high-quality gate oxide. The reduction of process steps and time and the potential for narrower trench make H 2 annealing an attractive process in trench MOSFET processing.