CMOS Processing

Technology 3
3.1 Introduction
Chapter 1 summarized the steps in a basic CMOS process. These steps are expanded
upon in this chapter. Where possible, the processing details are related to the way CMOS
circuits and systems are designed. Modern CMOS processing is complex, and while cov-
erage of every nuance is not within the scope of this book, we focus on the fundamental
concepts that impact design.
A fair question from a designer would be “Why do I care how transistors are made?”
In many cases, if designers understand the physical process, they will comprehend the rea-
son for the underlying design rules and in turn use this knowledge to create a better
design. Understanding the manufacturing steps is also important when debugging some
difficult chip failures and improving yield.
Fabrication plants, or fabs, are enormously expensive to develop and operate. In the
early days of the semiconductor industry, a few bright physicists and engineers could bring
up a fabrication facility in an industrial building at a modest cost and most companies did
their own manufacturing. Now, a fab processing 300 mm wafers in a 45 nm process costs
about $3 billion. The research and development underlying the technology costs another
$2.4 billion. Only a handful of companies in the world have the sales volumes to justify
such a large investment. Even these companies are forming consortia to share the costs of
technology development with their market rivals. Some companies, such as TSMC,
UMC, Chartered, and IBM operate on a foundry model, selling space on their fab line to
fabless semiconductor firms. Figure 3.1 shows workers and machinery in the cavernous
clean room at IBM’s East Fishkill 300 mm fab.
Recall that silicon in its pure or intrinsic state is a semiconductor, having bulk electri-
cal resistance somewhere between that of a conductor and an insulator. The conductivity
of silicon can be raised by several orders of magnitude by introducing impurity atoms into
the silicon crystal lattice. These dopants can supply either free electrons or holes. Group
III impurity elements such as boron that use up electrons are referred to as acceptors
because they accept some of the electrons already in the silicon, leaving holes. Similarly,
Group V donor elements such as arsenic and phosphorous provide electrons. Silicon that
contains a majority of donors is known as n-type, while silicon that contains a majority of
acceptors is known as p-type. When n-type and p-type materials are brought together, the
region where the silicon changes from n-type to p-type is called a junction. By arranging
junctions in certain physical structures and combining them with wires and insulators, var-
ious semiconductor devices can be constructed. Over the years, silicon semiconductor pro-
cessing has evolved sophisticated techniques for building these junctions and other
insulating and conducting structures.
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