Semiconductor manufacturing - Research Paper Example

These, however, largely depends on the source of the plasma. The available electric fields for this process is often externally applied though can also be internally generated as a result of the buildup of charge in the growing film surface or in the film itself. The electric fields (EF) are key to the process being that the transport of the charged particle, that is electrons and ions, between the plasma and oxide surface plus the oxide layer is largely dependent on their resulting effect. Fig 4 a) from [22] Shows an example of a relation of Si-O bond.

It exactly shows FWHM, ?, of the Si–O bond stretching mode as a function of annealing temperature for SiOx (x ? 0.15) and (Si, C)Ox (x ? 0.15 and C ? 10 at.%) thin films. The oxidation rate in plasma anodization and oxidation is controlled by the oxidant transport through the growing-oxide layer. Usually, the externally applied electric fields often rise to over 1MV/cm. The oxidant transport and the strong electric fields come together to result into a plasma-assisted oxidation rates at significantly low temperatures and pressures with each being below 600oC and 1 Torr respectively.

At atmospheric temperatures, more than 900oC, and pressure, dry oxygen usually have similar rates as those achieved in the process. Oxidation flux of silicon-silicon diode interface can be altered by varying the plasma parameters which includes power, frequency and pressure, and also changing the design of the reactor. This is so because these alter the anodization current and the electron concentration. Fig 4 b) from [22] Shows the log-log plots of the oxide thickness against oxidation time for O2 Remote Plasma Assisted Oxidation of Flat and vicinal Silicon.

Advantages Remote-plasma assisted oxidation help in minimizing the duration and number of steps of high temperature processes to allow for the reduction of thermal budget involved with the fabrication of the present and future Integrated Circuits (ICs). It is also a low temperature alternative that can be considered instead of the high-temperature processes. Concurrently, the fabrication of various thin-film transistors (TFTs) which are largely used in many flat panel displays requires the availability of low temperatures.

This is because of the glass substrates that the displays use and therefore the need to perform a remote-plasma assisted oxidation of silicon. 2. SMIF boxes (pods) and Front Opening Unified Pods (FOUP) used to transport wafers during semiconductor device manufacturing. Standard Mechanical InterFace is a standard that has been adopted for the facilitation of transport of wafer. It is a technology dated back in 1980 and used in cleanroom environments as well as in the fabrication of semiconductor wafers.

The SMIF boxes were originally designed in Hewlett-Packard by a group of engineers called ‘micronauts’. It is used to transport wafers during the manufacture of semiconductor device. It functions to isolate wafers from getting contaminated through provision of a mini environment with controlled parameters which include pressure, airflow and particle density. It is a completely sealed SMIF box and is therefore essential in moving wafers between different tools or minienvironments. Moreover, unlike the ‘ballroom’ concept by which an extremely clean environment, ultra-clean, is generally created in the whole room.

The SMIF pods are kept