Semiconductor fabrication technology

R Eichinger, H. J. Rath, and H. Schwenke. In Semiconductor Fabrication Technology and Metrology. ASTM STP990. (D. C. Gupta, ed.) American Society for Testing and Materials, 305, 1989. 

I. CMP A Unique and Evolving Semiconductor Fabrication Technology—Past, Present, and Future. 1... 

The History and Development of CMP as a Unique Semiconductor Fabrication Technology... 

This topic is well covered by the contributions in this volume. CMP continues to be viewed as a surprisingly unique and flexible semiconductor fabrication technology by virtue of its ability to make manufactureable potential fabrication sequences that are either too cumbersome or too low in yield to be fabricated in any other manner. Using virtually any CMP polisher, a variety of materials of interest to IC fabricators can be planarized. These materials include insulators, semiconductors, interconnect metals, and barrier metallurgies. This means that once a user becomes adept in polishing one kind of material, typically oxide and W at first, other materials of interest and other semiconductor processing sequences become viable. 

There is a constant move toward the improvement of instrumentation technology. This ranges from new detector and source technologies, to new ways to make IR measurements and new ways to fabricate instruments. In the area of components, there are new MEMS-based sources, which operate at low power and provide extended source lifetimes, new tunable laser devices, new tunable filter devices, both broad and narrow range, and new detector arrays. Many of these devices are currently relatively high cost. However, most are made from scalable technologies, such as semiconductor fabrication technologies, and as such if the demand increases the cost can come down. Many can follow Moore s law of... 

R. A. Lee, C. Patel, H. A. Williams, and N. A. Cade, Semiconductor fabrication technology applied to micrometer valves, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 36(11), 2703, 1989. 

Gise, P. Blanchard, R. Modern Semiconductor Fabrication Technology Prentice-Hall Englewood... 

Photoresists and electron-beam resists are the key to the success of VLSI electronic circuits. Without these resists, most electronic equipment would not exist. These polymers are spun onto the semiconductor and exposed to the circuit pattern leading to main chain scission or crosslinking. Subsequently, unpolymerised sections are removed. This process is employed either in wet or in dry conditions. This is known as the photolithographic process, which is part of the semiconductor fabrication technology. Further treatment includes diffusion of various semiconductor elements and metallisation for conduction lines. Layer by layer, the total package is developed. Current research is now directed toward finer features in the patterns and changes in the surface characteristics for subsequent layers. 

Shiraiwa, T., Fujino, N., Sumita, S., Tanizoe, Y. (1989) Chemical analysis of metallic impurity on the surface of silicon wafers. In Semiconductor Fabrication Technology and Metrology, edited by Gupta, D. Ann Arbor, MI American Society For Testing And Materials, pp. 314-323. 

---