PHYS 534 (Fall 2008)

Lecture 2

Introduction to Microfabrication

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Srikar Vengallatore, McGill University

How are Microsystems Designed?

Market need

Creativityy Evaluation
& experience C
Concept
t of competition

Manufacturing Modeling and

Embodiment
considerations Analysis

In-house
In house D t il
Detail Management
expertise decisions

Product Specification
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Structural Embodiment Phase of Design

•Selection of materials, structures, and shapes to

optimize performance and reliability.

•Is electrostatic actuation optimal?

•Is a torsional hinge optimal?

•Is aluminum the best material?

•Is sputtering the best method

to deposit aluminum?

But,….
Structural Design is Severely Constrained
by Process Limitations

Micro Engine

MACRO Engine

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 Metallic vs. Ceramic Materials
Silicon Microengine 5
Kalpakjian and Schmid

What is the Origin of the Process Limitations?

Starting Material: Substrate (wafer)

Photolithography
Patterning
g E-beam lithography
g p y
Ion beam lithography
Subtractive Soft lithography
Processes Processes
Additive Evaporation
Wet etching
Sputtering
Dry etching Processes CVD
Plasma etching
Electrodeposition
DRIE
Wafer bonding
Polishing

Package Microdevice

3
Microfabrication differs from macro-machining in several ways:

•Material removal is by selective corrosion

•Structural thin films are not available from a catalog.

I t d we have
Instead, h tto create
t th
the film
fil before
b f shaping
h i it

•Defining a pattern follows a process that resembles

Photography (of the old-fashioned type using photosensitive
films)

•Massively parallel manufacture

•Simultaneous manufacture and assembly

Catalog of Manufacturing Processes

Patterning Techniques: Photolithography, Microstamping,

Electron/ion beam lithography,
Soft lithography,…

Additive processes: Thin-film deposition, wafer bonding,

oxidation, epitaxy, …..

Subtractive p
processes: Wet etching,
g, dryy etching,
g, ion milling,
g,
deep reactive ion etching,…

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 Starting Material: Substrate

•Typical characteristics:

•Shape:
p Circular p
plates ((also called wafers))

•Size: ~1 mm thickness
~10 cm diameter

Common Substrate Materials

•Single crystal silicon

•Single crystal Quartz (silicon oxide) •Commercially

Commercially
Available
•Amorphous silica glasses

•Pyrex

•Gallium arsenide

•SiC

•……
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 How are Silicon Wafers Specified?
Chemistry: Purity; Dopant concentration

Electrical Properties: Resistivity

Geometry: Diameter;
Thickness;
Total thickness variations;
Surface finish and polish;
B
Bow and
d warpage;
Crystallographic Orientation;
Primary & secondary flats

Virginia Semiconductor (http://www.virginiasemi.com/) and many others 11

Specification of Chemistry

Impurities: Carbon, oxygen, heavy metals,…

Typically, O 2: 5 – 25 ppm
C: 1 – 5 ppm
Metals: < 1 ppb

Some impurities are intentionally added in small,

well-defined,
e de ed, qua quantities
es

Such impurities are called DOPANTS

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 Crystallography of Substrates

Based on atomic arrangement, materials can be

Amorphous

Single Crystals

Grain boundary

Polycrystalline

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[Ohring]

Unit Cells of Cubic Crystals

Simple Cubic

Body Center Cubic (BCC)

Face Center Cubic (FCC)

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 Directions of a Cubic Crystals

z [0,0,1]

[1,0,1]
Unit Distance

y [0,1,0]

[1,1,0]

x [1,0,0]

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Miller indices of Crystal Planes

[0,0,1]

[0,1,0]

[1,0,0]

Recipe: 1. Determine intercepts on each axis 1, 1, ∞

2. Take reciprocals of these numbers 1, 1, 0

3. Reduce to smallest integers (110)

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 Examples of Low Index Planes

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[Senturia]

Two Important Results for Cubic Crystals

Result 1. Plane (h k l) has unit normals [h k l]

[0,0,1] (1 1 0)

[0,1,0]

[1,0,0] [1 1 0]

Notation: {1 0 0} indicates a family of (1 0 0) planes

<1 0 0> indicates a family of [1 0 0] directions
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 Two Important Results for Cubic Crystals
Result 2. The angle (γ) between two planes with indices
(h1 k1 l1) and (h2 k2 l2) is given by

h1h2 + k1k 2 + l1l2

cos γ =
h12 + k12 + l12 h22 + k 22 + l22

Example: (i) The angle between (100) and (111) is

⎡1 + 0 + 0 ⎤ 1
γ = cos −1 ⎢ ⎥ = cos −1 = 54.7 0
⎣ 1 3 ⎦ 3

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Crystallography of Single-Crystal Silicon Wafers

(111) Wafers
Look for the primary flat

(100) Wafers

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[Maluf]

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 Representation of a Simple Process Flow

1 mm

10 cm

Golden Rule of Process Representation:

NOTHING is EVER drawn to scale!

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Thin-Film Deposition

1 mm

Thin Film
1 μm

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 Photolithographic Patterning

•Apply thin layer of photosensitive polymer

Photoresist
(~ 1 μm thick)

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Patterning Using Photolithography

•Selectively expose to light using a RETICLE

Opaque coating

Transparent
plate

•Reticles are also called Photo-masks: Commercially available

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Exposure to Ultraviolet Radiation 25

Exposed photoresist
is soluble

Development of Exposed Photo-resist

(Use solvent)
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Etching: Selective Corrosion to Remove Material

Chemical 1: Removes Blue only

Chemical 2: Removes only red

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28

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 Next: A Surface-Micromachining Process..

•Addition, Patterning & Selective Removal of Thin Films

Silicon
Oxide

Silicon 29
[Maluf]

Silicon oxide

Deposit polysilicon thin film

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 Mask
Photo
resist

Pattern and etch

polysilicon

polysilicon

Silicon
Oxide

31
[Maluf]

Sacrificial Oxide

Release the structure

32
[Maluf]

16
 2-d Representation of Process Flows

Again, Not to Scale!

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2-d Representation of Process Flow

(Photolithographic details not shown)

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Substrate Silicon Oxide Polysilicon

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 Interpretation of Floating Structures

Silicon Light Machines

•Examine different cross-sections to find anchoring locations

35

BULK MICROMACHINING:
Selective Removal Material from Substrate

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(Maluf)

18
Clarifies angle
of this surface

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Overview of Microdevice Manufacture

Starting Material: Substrate (wafer)

Photolithography
Pattern E-beam lithography
g p y
Formation Ion beam lithography
Subtractive Soft lithography
Processes Processes
Additive Evaporation
Wet etching
Sputtering
Dry etching Processes CVD
Plasma etching
Electrodeposition
DRIE
Wafer bonding
Polishing

Package Microdevice

38

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 Lithos: Stone graphy: to write

Photolithography: Pattern transfer using photons

H d
Hardware: S
Source off UV radiation
di ti ((aligner)
li )

Reticle (master pattern)

Photoresist (polymer)

Chemical solvents

39

Basic Steps in Photolithography

Coat
Photoresist

Expose to
Ultraviolet radiation

Develop

mask

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 Spin Coating and the Importance of Low Viscosity
Centrifugal forces vs. Viscosity

photoresist

1000 – 8000 rpm

10 – 30 s
ω

Partial evaporation of solvent during spin coating 41

How thin must the photoresist be?

•Depends on details of process flow

•To create small features (<1.0 μm), use thin resists (1.0 μm)

•For bulk micromachining, use thick (~10 μm) photoresist layer

Rule of Thumb
Photoresist thickness scales with feature size

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 Two Types of Photoresists

Exposed regions Exposed regions

become soluble become insoluble

POSITIVE resist NEGATIVE resist

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Mechanisms linked to Bond Formation/Destruction

Before Exposure

After Exposure

Positive Resist Negative Resist 44

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 Examples of Positive & Negative Resists

Positive: PMMA (poly methyl methacrylate)

DQN (diaquinone ester + phenolic novolak)

Negative: bis(aryl)azide rubber resists

•Photoresists are commercially available

45
[Madou]

Photolithographic Aligners

Source of Radiation

Focusing optics

Tooling for Alignment

46
[Senturia]

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 http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/nanotools/

ALIGNER

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Overview of Microdevice Manufacture

Starting Material: Substrate (wafer)

Photolithography
Pattern E-beam lithography
g p y
Formation Ion beam lithography
Subtractive Soft lithography
Processes Processes
Additive Evaporation
Wet etching
Sputtering
Dry etching Processes CVD
Plasma etching
Electrodeposition
DRIE
Wafer bonding
Polishing

Package Microdevice

48

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 THIN FILM USUALLY IMPLIES….

•Deposited on substrate & subsequently processed

•Lateral film dimensions much larger than thickness.

•Thin Films vs. Thick Films:

Thin films 0.1 μm < hfilm < 2 μm

Thick films 5 μm < hfilm
fil < 50 μm

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THIN FILM PROCESSING TECHNIQUES

Wet (Solution) Dry (Vapor)

•Spin casting •Evaporation

•Electrodeposition •Sputter-deposition

•Sol-gel & colloidal •Chemical vapor

techniques deposition (CVD)

•Pulsed-laser
deposition

•Oxidation
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 GENERIC VAPOR-DEPOSITION PROCESS
Source of atoms (target)

Vapor of atoms

substrate

vacuum

Nucleation Growth Coalescence 51

QUALITY OF DEPOSITED FILMS

Geometry: Thickness & Thickness uniformity

Lateral dimensions & uniformity
Conformality vs. Line-of-sight
Line of sight coatings

Kinetics: Rate of film growth

Chemistry: Fidelity of composition

Compositional uniformity

Mechanical stress: Intrinsic (growth-related)

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 GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS

Lateral uniformity &

Thickness uniformity

No lateral uniformity lateral uniformity

Thickness uniformityy y
No thickness uniformity

No lateral uniformity
No thickness uniformity
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CONFORMALITY OF COATING
•Ability to coat topographic features
i.e., ability to conform to surface features
Sidewall
Top surface

CONFORMAL NON-CONFORMAL
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 Material Addition Using Wafer Bonding

•Direct Wafer Bonding

Wafer 1

Wafer 2

•Intermediate Wafer Bonding

Metal; Glass; Oxide; Polymer 55

High Strength Bonding is Possible

(Bonded regions as strong as lattice!)

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 IR Image of Bond Formation

•Relatively simple process to implement

57

Overview of Microdevice Manufacture

Starting Material: Substrate (wafer)

Photolithography
Pattern E-beam lithography
g p y
Formation Ion beam lithography
Subtractive Soft lithography
Processes Processes
Additive Evaporation
Wet etching
Sputtering
Dry etching Processes CVD
Plasma etching
Electrodeposition
DRIE
Wafer bonding
Polishing

Package Microdevice

58

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 Key Concept:
Material Removal by Chemical Corrosion

Example 1: Development of Photoresist (Wet Etching)

Exposed photoresist
is soluble

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How to Design a Etch Process

•What etchants (chemicals/plasma) should I use?

•How
H llong will
ill the
th process take
t k (i.e.,
(i KINETICS)?

•Is the etch SELECTIVE?

(i.e., what materials can I work on?)

•Is
I the
th etch
t h ISOTROPIC or ANISOTROPIC?
(i.e., what SHAPES can I make?)

•How do I detect completion of etch process?

(i.e., END – POINT DETECTION)
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 Kinetics: Diffusion vs. Reaction Control

(Madou) 61

Diffusion-Limited vs. Reaction-Limited

Diffusion-Limited Kinetics:
-Rate of arrival of reactants controls rate of reaction

-Improve by stirring, gas evolution, etc.

Reaction-Limited Kinetics:
-Rate of interfacial reaction controls reaction rate

-Control using temperature, catalyst, etc.

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 Selectivity of Etch

masking layer
Substrate to be
etched

Etch rate off Substrate

Selectivity =
Etch rate of Masking Layer

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Selectivity is Critical for Surface Micromachining

Structural Material

Sacrificial Material

Substrate

REQUIREMENT:

Etch
Et h Sacrificial
S ifi i l M Material
t i l
without damaging Substrate
or Structural Materials

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[Maluf]

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 Isotropic vs. Anisotropic Etches

Isotropic

Etch front
Anisotropic 65

Gases and Plasma are also used for Etching

•Vapor Phase Dry Etching (non-plasma)

•Plasma-assisted Dry Etching

-Ion Milling (Focused Ion-Beam Milling)

-Ashing

-Reactive-Ion Etching

-Deep Reactive-Ion Etching

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 Overview of Microdevice Manufacture
Starting Material: Substrate (wafer)

Photolithography
Pattern E-beam lithography
g p y
Formation Ion beam lithography
Subtractive Soft lithography
Processes Processes
Additive Evaporation
Wet etching
Sputtering
Dry etching Processes CVD
Plasma etching
Electrodeposition
DRIE
Wafer bonding
Polishing

Package Microdevice

67

Approach to Learning Microfabrication

•This is an area of very active research

•Focus on: Fundamental principles + Established methods

•Learn ideas, but also a few crucial details

•Learn by assimilation: Case Studies

•Learn
Learn to find information.
information

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