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UNIT 1 Fabrication Process

Layout is designed from a point of view where the designer is looking down onto the layout. This is the best way to design layout, but it does make visualizing the physical device rather difficult.

This layout is slightly strange, but is still perfectly valid. The horizontal line will act as the reference for the cross sectional view. A cross sectional view is what the layout would look like if it were cut along the line, and the edge of the cut was examined. The exact process steps change dramatically from one fab to another. However, they all follow the same basic idea. Layout designers don't need to know the exact details, just a general idea of how a chip is made. The specific details is the job of the process engineers.

The die is covered with a photoresist that will react with the pattern of shadows cast onto the chip from the mask. The sections that are still soluble are washed away, leaving those sections unprotected from that process step. In a standard N-Well process, one of the first things made is the N-Well.

Once the N-Well is created, the P-type diffusions can be created. Boron is the most popular element used for this step.

The N-type diffusions must also be created. Phosphorous and Arsenic can both be used for this step.

A very thin layer of silicon dioxide is created on the chip. This will be used to insulate the gate from the surface of the chip.

The first deposit of polysilicon now takes place to act as the gate of each transistor. The silicon dioxide under each polysilicon gate is known as gate oxide.

After the gate polysilicon is created, an additional layer of silicon dioxide is added. Next, the polysilicon used for routing is created. This polysilicon is known as field polysilicon since it is used in the field of a chip and not for a gate. Likewise, the layers of insulating silicon dioxide not directly under the gate of a transistor is known as field oxide.

Additional oxide is created, then the contact holes are cut in the oxide down to the diffusions and field polysilicon. Depending on the process, these contacts can either be filled by having small plugs of metal inserted into the holes, or the metal during the metal1 step is permitted to flow into the holes. Tungsten is the most popular metal used in a "plug" process.

The first layer of metal is now placed on the chip. The most popular metal to use is Aluminum. However, the most advanced processes now use copper when dealing with very high speed microprocessors

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