ELCT 705 :

Semiconductor Technology

Lecture 01: Introduction

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohamed Ragaa Balboul

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
(CMOS)
CMOS is a technology for constructing ICs. This technology
is used in microprocessors, microcontrollers, RAM, and other
digital logic circuits.
Microprocessor

Microcontroller

RAM
 Information Age
The ability of fabricate tens of millions of individual components
(transistors, resistors, capacitors, etc.) on a silicon chip with an area of
a few cm2 has enabled the information age.
Shrinking geometries permit more devices to be placed in a given are of
silicon.
It is widely expected that these historical trends will continue for at
least another 10-20 years, resulting in Chips that contain billions of
components.
 Moores Law
Feature Size

100m

10m Cell dimensions

1m

130 nm in 2002
0.1m

10nm Transition Region

Atomic dimensions
1nm Quantum Effects Dominate

Atomic Dimensions
0.1nm
1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 Year
1 nanometre = 1109 m
1 micrometre = 1106 m
 Moores Law
Feature Size

100m

10m Cell dimensions

1m
How long can the historical trends of shrinking
130 nm in 2002
0.1m transistors and increasing chip complexity continue???

10nm Transition Region

Atomic dimensions
1nm Quantum Effects Dominate

Atomic Dimensions
0.1nm
1960 1980 2000 2020 2040 Year
1 nanometre = 1109 m
1 micrometre = 1106 m
 Moores Law
While there is still disagreement about the exact answers to
these questions, it is clear that quantum mechanical effects
will important when device dimensions reach 10 or 20
nanometers
Gate oxides in MOS devices likely cannot be shrunk below about
1 1.5 nm because electrons can easily tunnel through such thin
insulators.
At these dimensions, it is very difficult to keep the depletion
regions associated with PN junction from interacting with each
other.
Defects during the manufacturing process (a single defect
larger than some critical size usually means that the chip will
not function correctly)
Manufacturing IC requires low defect densities (Ultra clean
facilities)
Clean Rooms
Historical Perspective
The First Transistor from Bell Labs

Bell Laboratories in 1947

Jack Kilbys First Integrated Circuit

Texas Instruments in 1958

 Historical Perspective
A single crystal of silicon or germanium is grown which contained a
thin region (P-type) of opposite doping to the main part of the
crystal.
Single crystals provide stable, uniform and reproducible device
characteristic.

N N

P P

N N

N P N
P

Grown junction transistor technology of the 1950s

 Historical Perspective
The alloy junction technology illustrated in Figure was even
simpler.
A metal such as indium was placed on the S.C. (usually Ge). The structure
was then heated, melting the In and allowing it to dissolve into the Ge.
Indium is a P-type dopant so P regions were formed creating a PNP
structure along with contacts to the P regions.

In

N N

In

P
N
N P

Alloy junction technology of the 1950s

 Historical Perspective
Part of the solution was provided by the invention of gas phase
diffusion processes.
Beginning with an N-type crystal, the wafer was exposed in a high temperature
furnace to a gaseous source of a P-type dopant such as boron. The boron diffused
into the crystal by solid state diffusion, resulting in the P-type layer. The
process was then repeated with an N-type source, producing the final NPN
structure.

N
N P

N
N
P

N
N
P

Double diffused mesa transistor technology of 1957

 Historical Perspective
The planar process relied on the gas phase diffusion of dopants
to produce N- and P-type regions, but also on the ability of SiO2
to mask these diffusions. This was a major advance and it was
largely responsible for the switch from Ge to Si.

S iO2

N P

N
P

N
P

N
How a processor is made
today?
 Sand
1- Sand. Made up of 25 percent silicon, is, after oxygen, the second most chemical
element thats in the earths crust. Sand, especially quartz, has high percentages
of silicon in the form of silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is the base ingredient for
semiconductor manufacturing.
 Silicon
2-After separating the silicon, it is purified in multiple steps to finally reach S.C.
manufacturing quality which is called electronic grade silicon (poly-crystal). The
resulting purity is so great that it may only have one alien atom for every one
billion silicon atoms.
 Silicon Wafer fabrication
3-After the purification process, the silicon enters the melting phase. A mono-
crystal ingot is produced from electronic grade silicon. One ingot weighs
approximately 100 kilograms (or 220 pounds) and has a silicon purity of 99.9999
percent.
 Single Crystal Silicon Wafer
4-The ingot is then moved onto the slicing phase where individual silicon discs, called
wafers, are sliced thin. Several different diameters of ingots exist depending on
the required wafer size. Today, CPUs are commonly made on 300 mm wafers.
Once cut, the wafers are polished until they have flawless, mirror-smooth
surfaces.
 Lithography
5-The blue liquid is a photo resist finish similar to those used in film for
photography. The wafer spins during this step to allow an evenly-distributed
coating thats smooth and also very thin. At this stage, the photo-resistant
finish is exposed to ultra violet (UV) light. The chemical reaction triggered by
the UV light is similar to what happens to film material in a camera the
moment you press the shutter button.
 etching
6-The exposure is done using masks that act like stencils. When used with UV
light, masks create the various circuit patterns. This process over and over
until multiple layers are stacked on top of each other.
 Thin film deposition
7- After being exposed to UV light, the exposed blue photo resist areas are
completely dissolved by a solvent. This reveals a pattern of photo resist made
by the mask. Areas that were exposed will be etched away with chemicals.
 Doping (ion implantation)
8- Through a process called ion implantation (doping) the exposed areas of the
silicon wafer are bombarded with ions. Ions are implanted in the silicon wafer to
alter the way silicon in these areas conduct electricity. Ions are propelled onto
the surface of the wafer at very high velocities.
 How a Processor is made ?
9- The wafers are put into a copper sulphate solution at this stage. Copper ions are
deposited onto the transistor through a process called electroplating. The
copper ions travel from the positive terminal (anode) to the negative terminal
(cathode) which is represented by the wafer.
 How a Processor is made ?
10-The copper ions settle as a thin layer on the wafer surface. The excess material
is polished off leaving a very thin layer of copper. Multiple metal layers are
created to interconnects (think wires) in between the various transistors.
 How a Processor is made ?
11- This fraction of a ready wafer is being put through a first functionality test. In
this stage test patterns are fed into every single chip and the response from
the chip monitored and compared to the right answer.
 How a Processor is made ?
12-The dies that responded with the right answer to the test pattern will be put
forward for the next step (packaging).
Top View of Silicon Wafer with Chips

A single integrated circuit, also known

as a die, chip, and microchip
 Course Outline
This course is basically about silicon chip fabrication,
the technologies used to manufacture integrated
circuit (IC).
Describe the flow of the CMOS process and its steps.
Crystal growth, wafer fabrication and basic properties
of silicon wafer.
Thermal oxidation and the Si/SiO2 interface.
Ion implantation (doping).
Etching.
Thin film deposition methods.
 Textbook

J.D. Plummer, M.D. Deal, P.B. Griffin (2004).

Silicon VLSI Technology:
Fundamentals, Practice and Modeling,
Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-085037-3.
 Prerequisites

ELCT 503: Semiconductors

Semiconductor Devices
Intrinsic semiconductor
Extrinsic Semiconductor
PN diode
MOS transistor
Bipolar junction transistor