Silicon Device Fabrication

Technology
Dr. Faris

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• Over 1015 transistors (or 100,000 for every person in the world) are
manufactured every year.
• VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration)
• ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integration)
• Variations of this versatile technology are used for flat-panel displays,
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micro-electro-mechanical
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systems (MEMS), and even DNA chips for
DNA screening...
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Classification of IC
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Fabrication and Characteristics
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• An integrated circuit consists of a single-crystal chip of silicon,

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typically 50 by 50 mils (1.27 mm) in cross section
• Containing both active and passive elements and their
interconnections.
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• Such circuits are produced by the same processes used to fabricate

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individual transistors and diodes.
• A method of batch processing is employed which offers excellent
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repeatability and is adaptable to the production of large numbers of
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integrated circuits at low cost.

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INTEGRATED-CIRCUIT
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(MICROELECTRONIC)
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TECHNOLOGY
• The fabrication of integrated circuits is based on materials, processes,
and design principles which constitute a highly developed
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semiconductor (planar-diffusion) technology.

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• All active and passive components are built within the thin n-type
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layer using a series of diffusion steps. These components are

transistors, diodes, capacitors, and resistors, and they are made by
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diffusing p-type and n-type impurities.

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• The
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most complicated component fabricated is the transistor, and all
other elements are constructed with one or more of the processes
required to make a transistor.

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Typical circuit

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Main Fabrication
steps

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see
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 essing
steps
Processing steps
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Basic Process
•eThe basic processes used to fabricate ICs using silicon planar
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technology can be categorised
• as follows:
• 1. Silicon wafer (substrate) preparation
• 2. Epitaxial growth
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• 3. Oxidation
• 4. Photolithography
• 5. Diffusion
• 6. Ion implantation
• 7. Isolation techniques 11
• 8. Metallization Modern Semiconductor Devices for Integrated Circuits-Pearson
(2009) Chenming C. Hu-

Main device fabrication process

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1. Oxidation -----

2. Lithography & Etching-----

3. Ion Implantation----

4. Annealing & Diffusion--------

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 Silicon Wafer Preparation
The following steps are used in the preparation of Si-wafers:

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1. Crystal growth and doping

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2. Ingot trimming and grinding
3. Ingot slicing
gene
set
purif
4. Wafer polishing and etching The
5. Wafer cleaning
The starting material for crystal growth is highly
g e
purified (99.99999) t
polycrystalline silicon.
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The Czochralski crystal growth process is the most often

used for producing single crystal silicon ingots. 13
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Epitaxial Growth
• The word epitaxy is derived from Greek word epi meaning ‘upon’ and
the past tense of -
theword teinon meaning ‘arranged’.
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• So, one could describe epitaxy as, arranging atoms in single

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crystal fashion upon a single crystal substrate, so that the resulting layer
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is an extension of the substrate crystal structure.

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• The
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basic chemical reaction used for the epitaxial growth of pure
silicon is the hydrogen reduction of silicon tetrachloride.
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 Oxidation
• SiO2 has the property of preventing the diffusion of almost all
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impurities through it. It serves two very important purposes.

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1. SiO2 is an extremely hard protective coating and is unaffected by

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almost all reagents except hydrofluoric acid. Thus, it stands against any
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contamination.
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2. By selective etching SiO2, diffusion of impurities through carefully
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defined windows in the SiO2 can be accomplished to fabricate various

components.
The silicon wafers are stacked up in a quartz boat and then inserted into
quartz furnace tube.
The Si-wafers are raised to a high temperature in the range of 950 to 16
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 OXIDATION OF SILICON
• In ICs, silicon dioxide SiO2 is used for mask against dopant
n e e

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introduction into silicon
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• most critical component in the metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor

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Two type of oxidation
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dry
2. wet
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 Photolithography
10,000 transistors can be fabricated on a 1 cm × 1 cm chip.
The conventional photolithographic process uses ultraviolet
light exposure and device dimension or line width as small as
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2 mm can be obtained. However, with the advent of latest

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technology using X-ray or electron beam lithographic
techniques, it has become possible to produce device
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dimension down to
sub-micron range (<1 mm).
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• Photolithography involves two

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processes, namely:
• Making of a photographic mask
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 • Photo etching

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Lithography processing
• To remove oxide from those areas in which dopant atoms are to be
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introduced.
• By -using a process called photolithography or optical lithography.
• using the patterning of an SiO2 film as an example
• The top surface of the wafer is first coated with an ultraviolet (UV) light sensitive material called
photoresist. (Liquid photoresist is placed on the wafer)
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• The next step is to expose the resist through
a photomask and a high-precision reduction
(for example 5 to 1 reduction) lens system
using UV light (b). :
• The photomask is a quartz photoplate
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containing the patterns to beproduced.
• In negative resists, the areas where the light
strikes become polymerized and more
difficult to dissolve in solvents. When
placed in a developer (solvent), the
polymerized regions remain, while the
unexposed regions
• dissolve and wash away. The net result after
development is pictured on the righthand
side of Fig (c). 21
• Positive resists contain a stabilizer that

Diffusion
• Another important process in the fabrication of monolithic ICs is the
diffusion of impurities in the silicon chip. This uses a high temperature
furnace having a flat temperature profile over a useful length (about
20¢¢ length). A quartz boat containing about 20 cleaned wafers is
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pushed into the hot zone with temperature maintained at about a
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1000°C. Impurities to be diffused are rarely used in their elemental
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forms.
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Ion Implantation
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In diffusion process, temperature has to be controlled over a large area

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inside the oven, whereas in ion implantation technique, accelerating
potential and the beam current are electrically controlled from outside.

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 Ion Implantation
• Ion implantation is the most important doping method because of the
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precise control it provides.
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 Patten Transfer and Etching
• pattern is formed in the resist by lithography, the resist pattern is often
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transferred to an underlying film, for example, the SiO2 in (slide 11 d).

•ewet etching SiO2 isn removed with HF.
• Dry etching technique can overcome this shortcoming and is the
dominant etching technology. -

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DOPING

• The density profile of the dopant atoms in the silicon (dopant profile)
is generally determined in two steps.
1. the dopant atoms are placed on or near the surface of the wafer by
a.
b) a. ion implantation
c) b. gas-source doping
d) c. solid-source diffusion.
transports the dopant atoms further into the silicon substrate.
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 DOPANT DIFFUSION

• drive the dopant deeper into silicon. This is accomplished by

diffusion. Unwanted diffusion also may occur during the post-implant
anneal. The diffusion process is illustrated.

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THIN-FILM DEPOSITION
• Silicon nitride, silicon dioxide, Si, and many types of metal thin films
are deposited during IC fabrication.
• Sputtering

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Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)

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Graphical summary of the major processing steps in the formation of a PN junction diode

Start

oxidation

lithography

oxide etching

As implantation

annealing and diffusion

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 sputtering Al

lithography

metal etching

CVD nitride deposition

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 lithography and bonding window etching

removal of oxide from back side of wafer

deposition of Au on back side

dicing and packaging.

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