Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• Thermal Oxidation
• Photolithography
• Etching
• Dopant Diffusion
• Metal Evaporation
• Electrical Testing
Thermal Oxidation
Silicon is the dominant semiconductor used in integrated circuit processing,
in large part due to its ability to form a robust (tough) native oxide.
Si + O2 → SiO2
or
In order to create integrated circuits, the silicon wafer must be doped with
impurities (boron and phosphorus are the most common) selectively – this is
accomplished by removing the oxide in specific areas so the dopants are
allowed to diffuse (movement due to high temperature) into the exposed
silicon.
But photolithography is binary – either the film is exposed or not exposed; there
are no shades of gray.
Photolithography
Mask or Reticle:
At this point the mask image can be seen in the PR (remember that the PR
was illuminated with UV light through the mask, so only light in the shape
of the circuit reaches the PR – the rest of the PR did not change!).
Note: the image from the mask has only been transferred to the PR. The
PR will be used as a mask for etching the underlying oxide in an acid
bath.
Etching
The previous steps produced a pattern in the PR
layer coating the oxidized wafer. This patterned
PR will now be used for selectively etching the
oxide areas that are exposed.
In order for current to flow in a material there must be ‘loose’ electrons. But all
the electrons in silicon are working at holding the atoms together, which
means it is not a good conductor of current.
So what can be done to allow the silicon to conduct current more easily? Free
‘carriers’ of current must be added. The goal is to find an element about the
same size as a silicon atom so that it fits together well with the silicon, but
with more electrons in its outer shell.
Dopant Diffusion – physics
In the periodic table, the closer elements are to each other, the more similar
they are. So the best candidates would come from column V (which have
five outer shell electrons). The element closest to silicon in column V is
phosphorus.
If phosphorus is inserted into the silicon wafer in a certain way, it will take the
place of a silicon atom and bond with its four neighbor silicon atoms. After
bonding, phosphorus has an electron left over that is not bonded to a silicon
atom. It turns out this extra electron is not strongly held by the phosphorus
atom any more, so it can be removed easily. This electron then becomes a
‘carrier’ for current – it is free to move around the wafer. So the conductivity
of the silicon wafer increases. This type of silicon ‘doped’ with phosphorus
is called an n-type semiconductor.
Dopant Diffusion – physics
Extending this idea of inserting an element with a different number of valence
electrons, a column III element (such as boron) could be added to the
silicon wafer. In this case, the boron will try to bond with four silicon
atoms, but it only has three electrons to bond with. This means there is
an incomplete bond with one of the silicon atoms – a ‘hole’ where an
electron would normally be. This ‘hole’ behaves much like an electron
and can move around the wafer, but with an opposite charge (+). So a
different type of current carrier is present in the wafer that increases the
wafer’s conductivity. This type of silicon ‘doped’ with boron is called a p-
type semiconductor.
Think of carriers as being able to only move across a flat surface or down a
slope. The built in potential is a hill that the carrier can not go up. So in
order for the carrier to keep moving, the low part must be pushed up to be
level or higher than the top of the hill. In the case of an n-type / p-type
junction, the energy to push up the low side comes in the form of a voltage
applied to the wafer. The voltage is used to ‘push up’ the ‘ground’ on the low
side of the hill before current flows from n-type to p-type regions.
But if the voltage is reversed, the energy is used to push the low side lower
while keeping the high side at the same height! That means the carrier
probably won’t ever make it up the higher hill, so it is stuck (no current
flows).
Dopant Diffusion – physics
So when n-type silicon is brought into contact with p-type silicon (a pn junction),
current can flow in only one direction. This is the fundamental
semiconductor device – a pn junction diode – a one way switch for current.
Some modern processes may require more than 20 iterations of this sequence!
Oxidation
Photo-
lithography
Etching
Diffusion (Ion The following slides show the rest of the processes
Implantation) performed in the ECE444 lab.
ECE444 Process
Phosphorus Diffusion
• Photolithography Mask 2
• Etch
• Phosphorus Predeposition
Metal definition
• Photolithography Mask 5
Metallization
After all diffusion and oxidation steps are
completed, metal is deposited onto
the surface of the wafer. This metal is
used to ‘wire’ the devices fabricated in
the silicon together.
1. Initial oxidation
2. Photolithography Mask 1
3. Oxide etch
4. Boron predep
5. Boron drive and re-oxidation
6. Photolithography Mask 2
7. Oxide etch
8. Phosphorus predeposition
9. Photolithography Mask 3
10. Gate oxidation
11. Photolithography Mask 4
12. Etch
13. Photolithography Mask 5
14. Metal evaporation
15. Metal definition
Ellipsometer
Diffusion/oxidation furnace Prometrix FT650