Semiconductor

What are
semiconductors?
What are semiconductors?

- Are materials that exhibit electrical

conductivity values falling between
that of a conductor and an insulator

- From the name “semiconductors”

itself, they are materials that can be
modified into a electrical conductor
or an insulator
 Types of
semiconductor
materials
 Types of semiconductor materials

Silicon Germanium Gallium

(element) (element) Arsenide
(compound)
 Types of semiconductor materials

Other notable examples of semiconductor materials:

• Selenium (element)
• Indium Phosphide (compound)
• Gallium Nitride (compound)
• Silicon Carbide (compound)
• Diamond (element)
Properties
Of Semiconductors
 Properties
Variable electrical conductivity
 Properties
Allows for the desired manipulation of electrical
current and electronic signals

Diode Transistor
 Properties

Direction of “normal” diode current flow Forward Biasing of a Diode

 Properties

The NPN Bipolar Junction The conventional and electron

Transistor’s schematic symbol flow in a NPN BJT
 Transistors used in
logic circuits

Schematic diagram of an AND NPN BJT used as a component

gate using NPN BJT in an AND gate logic circuit
 Transistors in integrated
circuits

An old processor with the cover The circuit of billions of

removed, revealing the structure transistors in a processor under
of the integrated circuit a scanning electron microscope
 Properties of semiconductor materials

Other notable properties of semiconductor materials:

• Electrical conductivity increases with the increase in

temperature
• Photovoltaic effect: a process that generates voltage
or electric current when it is exposed to light
• Ability to emit light
Semiconductor
production
Where are raw materials
sourced from?
Silicon is derived from silica sand or
silicon dioxide (SiO2), which is
sourced from sand quarries from
different parts of the world
Silicon chips are manufactured in
many countries, but the most
dominant producers in the world
are the US and China
The general process in
Semiconductor production

1. Processing/Purification
2. Crystal growth
3. Doping
4. Assembly
 The two most
commonly used
doping process
 Ion implantation
• involves the introduction of
dopant ions into a solid material
by accelerating the ions to high
energies and directing them at a
target surface.
• ions penetrate the surface of
the material and become
embedded within its crystal
lattice structure
 diffusion
• introduces dopant impurities
into a material by heating the
material in the presence of a
dopant source
• dopant atoms migrate through
the crystal lattice of the
material, driven by a
concentration gradient, and
become incorporated into the
lattice structure of the material
Melting silica sand into pure
molten silicon

Silica sand or silicon dioxide (SiO2)

is melted in a crucible, where
oxygen gets separated from the
compound to produce pure molten
silicon
 Monocrystalline pulling
process

Right: A single
crystal silicon with
300 mm diameter
grown from the
monocrystalline
pulling process;
beside is a human
for scale
Above: Czochralski method; the centrifugal force
aligns the molecular structure of the silicon crystal
into one uniform direction
 Slicing the silicon crystal into
wafers

Left: a stack of
silicon wafers

Above: Diamond wire cutting; the silicon ingots are cut into
thin circular wafers using diamond encrusted wires
 cleaning

- Chemical agents are used to remove

contaminations as even a small,
microscopic speck of dust will cause
defects in a circuit in a chip
 Film Deposition

- Thin film layers of silicon oxide,

aluminum and other metals that will
become the circuit materials are formed
on the wafer.
- Done through a variety of techniques:
- “sputtering”
- Electrodeposition
- Chemical vapor deposition
 Post-deposition cleaning

- Minute particles adhering to the wafer

after the film deposition are removed using
brushes or Nanospray with deionized
water, or other physical cleaning methods.
 Resist coating

- The wafer surface is coated with resist

(photosensitive chemical). Then the
wafer is spun, causing a uniform layer of
resist to be formed on the wafer surface
by centrifugal force.
 exposure

- The wafer is exposed using short

wavelength deep ultraviolet radiation
projected through a mask on which the
circuit pattern has been formed. Only the
areas of the resist layer that are exposed to
the light undergo a structural change,
thereby transferring the pattern to the
wafer.
 development

- Developer is sprayed onto the wafer,

dissolving the areas exposed to the light
and revealing the thin film on the wafer
surface. The remaining resist areas that
are not exposed at this point become the
mask for the next etching process, and
that resist pattern becomes the pattern
on the layer below.
 etching

- the exposed thin film on the surface

layer is dissolved using chemicals, such
as hydrofluoric acid or phosphoric acid,
and removed. This forms the pattern.
There is also a dry etching method in
which the wafer surface is bombarded
with ionized atoms to remove the film
layer.
 Doping or implantation of
impurities

- In order to give the silicon substrate

semiconducting properties, impurities,
such as phosphor or boron ions, are
implanted in the wafers.
 activation

- Heat processing is performed using flash

lamps or laser radiation to activate the
doped ions implanted in the wafer.
Instantaneous activation is required to
create the micro transistors on the
substrate.
 Resist stripping

- Resist can be stripped off at a wet

station, which uses chemicals that
remove the resist, or by ashing, which
removes the resist by inducing a
chemical reaction using gases. The wafer
is cleaned after the ashing.
 assembly

- The wafer is separated into individual

chips (dicing), the chips are connected to
a metal frame called a lead frame using
metal wire (wire bonding) and then
enclosed in epoxy resin
material(packaging).
Semiconductor
applications
how do semiconductors
power our world?
electronics
Computing
sensors
Energy
Semiconductor
testing
How are semiconductors
graded and tested?
 CRYSTALLOGRAPHIC
ANALYSIS
involves examining the crystal
structure of the semiconductor
material using X-ray diffraction or
electron microscopy. This can
provide information about the
material's crystalline quality and
orientation, which can affect its
electronic properties

Above: a scanning electron microscope (SEM)

 MECHANICAL TESTING

used to evaluate the mechanical

properties of semiconductor
materials, such as their strength,
hardness, and elasticity. Techniques
such as nanoindentation and
atomic force microscopy can be
used to measure these properties
at the micro- and nanoscale.

Above: an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)

 ELECTRICAL MEASUREMENTS
used to characterize the electronic
properties of semiconductor
materials, such as their resistivity,
carrier concentration, and mobility.
This can be done using various
techniques such as Hall effect
measurements, resistivity
measurements, and capacitance-
voltage measurements.

Above: an RM-8000 resistivity meter

Thank you for
listening!

Presented by:
Jeremiah job pua
Alan Norris fajura
Mariano liwan jr.
Dyzelle beled