Conductivity silicon nitrides

Hirao, K., Watari, K., Hayashi, H., and Kitayama, M., High thermal conductivity silicon nitride ceramic, MRS Bull 451—455, Jime 2001. 

CVD plays an increasingly important part in the design and processing of advanced electronic conductors and insulators as well as related structures, such as diffusion barriers and high thermal-conductivity substrates (heat-sinks). In these areas, materials such as titanium nitride, silicon nitride, silicon oxide, diamond, and aluminum nitride are of particular importance. These compounds are all produced by CVD. 1 1 PI... 

The next step was the introduction of ion implantation to dope Si for thermometers. Downey et al. [66] used micromachining to realize a Si bolometer with an implanted thermometer. This bolometer had very little low-frequency noise. The use of thermometers doped by neutron transmutation instead of melt doping is described by Lange et al. [67], The evolution of bolometers sees the replacement of the nylon wires to make the conductance to the bath, used by Lange et al. with a micromachined silicon nitride membrane with a definite reduction in the heat capacity associated to the conductance G [68],... 

A cross-sectional schematic of a monolithic gas sensor system featuring a microhotplate is shown in Fig. 2.2. Its fabrication relies on an industrial CMOS-process with subsequent micromachining steps. Diverse thin-film layers, which can be used for electrical insulation and passivation, are available in the CMOS-process. They are denoted dielectric layers and include several silicon-oxide layers such as the thermal field oxide, the contact oxide and the intermetal oxide as well as a silicon-nitride layer that serves as passivation. All these materials exhibit a characteristically low thermal conductivity, so that a membrane, which consists of only the dielectric layers, provides excellent thermal insulation between the bulk-silicon chip and a heated area. The heated area features a resistive heater, a temperature sensor, and the electrodes that contact the deposited sensitive metal oxide. An additional temperature sensor is integrated close to the circuitry on the bulk chip to monitor the overall chip temperature. The membrane is released by etching away the silicon underneath the dielectric layers. Depending on the micromachining procedure, it is possible to leave a silicon island underneath the heated area. Such an island can serve as a heat spreader and also mechanically stabihzes the membrane. The fabrication process will be explained in more detail in Chap 4. 

Device materials again may be conductive, semiconductive, dielectric, or resistive. Conductors are typically gold or aluminum, and resistors, silicon monoxide or silicon nitride. Tantalum nitride and nickel chromium are common resistor materials. 

Modern ceramic materials now include zirconium oxide (Zr02), titanium carbide (TiC), and silicon nitride (SiN). There are now many more uses of these new ceramic materials. For example, vehicle components such as ceramic bearings do not need lubrication - even at high speeds. In space technology, ceramic tiles protected the Space Shuttle from intense heat during its re-entry into the Earth s atmosphere. In the power supply industry, they are used as insulators due to the fact that they do not conduct electricity (Figure 3.39). 

Guijt et al. [69] reported four-electrode capacitively coupled conductivity detection in NCE. The glass microchip consisted of a 6 cm etched channel (20 x 70 pm cross-section) with silicon nitride covered walls. Laugere et al. [70] described chip-based, contactless four-electrode conductivity detection in NCE. A 6 cm long, 70 pm wide, and 20 pm deep channel was etched on a glass substrate. Experimental results confirmed the improved characteristics of the four-electrode configuration over the classical two-electrode detection set up. Jiang et al. [71] reported a mini-electrochemical detector in NCE,... 

Russell, L.M., Donaldson, K.Y., Hasselman, D.P.H., Corbin, N.D. Petrovic, J.J. and Rhodes, J.F. Effect of vapor-liquid-solid and vapor-solid silicon carbide whiskers on the effective thermal diffusivity/conductivity of silicon nitride matrix composites , J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 74[4] (1991) 874-877. 

In addition, flame propagation is not possible in stainless-steel channels owing to the high heat conductivity and affinity to radicals. But even for materials which do not adsorb radicals, a minimum channel width exists below which no homogeneous combustion is possible any longer. Insulating materials such as silicon nitride and inert layers such as alumina are required to maintain the homogeneous reaction. 

Polymers are a viable material option for the fabrication of highly efficient low-temperature heat exchangers, designed to withdraw the last portion of energy out of the fuel processor off-gases before releasing them to the environment For small-scale MEMS-like systems, the materials commonly applied in this field are silicon [20, 71] (as a material with high heat conductivity) and silicon nitride [71] (as an insulation material). 

The next three chapters review the deposition of thermally-induced dielectric films (Chapter 3) and metallic conducting films (Chapter 4), as well as plasma-enhanced films of either type (Chapter 5). The many chemical systems employed to create these films are considered, and the nature of the resulting films is presented. Films studied are silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, polysilicon, epitaxial silicon, the refractory metal silicides, tungsten and aluminum. 

The principal limitation of STM is that it cannot be used with insulating substrates. However, at the sort of distances where tunnelling currents occur, there is an attractive or repulsive force between atoms in the tip and the substrate, which is independent of the conducting or nonconducting nature of the substrate. In order to measure this, the tip is mounted on the end of a soft cantilever spring, the deflection of which is monitored optically by interferometry or beam deflection. These cantilever springs are microfabricated photolithographically from silicon, silica, or silicon nitride and have lateral dimensions of around 100 pm and thickness of 1 jum, to which tiny diamond tips are attached. 

Fig. 40 Conducting film, plasma polymerised from 2-iodothiophene, on silicon. Left topography contrast (shaded pseudo-3D-image) with 405 nm corrugation. Middle real part (conductivity), with a contrast of 2.8 nA. Right imaginary part (capacity), with a contrast of 270 pA, the a.c. currents shown in the middle and in the right image were simultaneously measured together with the topography. The cantilever is made of silicon nitride coated with gold. The excitation is 0.8 V at 60 kHz, the scan speed is 4.17 pm/s...

Efii and E are the band gaps of the two materials ( qi being the larger) and AE. and AEy are the band offsets. For the nitride overlayers, the sum on the right hand side agrees with the silicon nitride band gap of 5.3 eV within about 0.2 eV, which is as accurate as can be expected for this type of measurement. The conduction band offset is nearly twice that of the valence band and the interface is illustrated in Fig. 9.18. 

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