Semiconductor processing technologies

Semiconductor Processing Technologies and the Application of Surface Analysis Techniques... 

Kareh B-E. Fundamentals of Semiconductor Processing Technology. Kluwer Academic Publishers 1995. p 568. 

Nanotechnology involves the development of techniques to buUd machines from atoms and molecules. The name comes from nanometer, which is one-billionth of a meter. It involves the development of new electrical devices that depend on quantum effects that arise when the dimension of a structure is only a few atoms across. Because the techniques best suited for fabricating devices on the submicron scale originated in semiconductor processing technology for the production of integrated circuits, nanoscale devices are aU based on semiconductors. 

Budde, K.J., Determination of organic contamination from polymeric construction materials for semiconductor technology. Mater. Res. Soc. Symp., Proc. Ultraclean Semiconductor Processing Technology and Surface Chemical Cleaning and Passivation, 1995, 386, 165-176. 

Semiconductor processing technologies have often been used to produce ISEs, particularly as field-effect transistors (FETs) with ion-selective layers like silicon oxide over the gate region. Such ion-selective FETs (ISFETs) are, in principle, solid ISEs, although sometimes the dielectric over the gate is covered with a second, liquid membrane-type layer to achieve different selectivities. 

In recent development of the semiconductor industries, thermal oxide film thickness of less than 5 nm has been used in semiconductor devices such as metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures. Thickness of less than 5 nm is almost near the thickness of a native oxide film on the surface of silicon wafer. Therefore the characterization of ultra thin native oxide film is important in the semiconductor process technology. The secondary electron microscopy (SEM), the scanning Auger electron microscopy (SAM), the atomic force microscopy (AFM) and the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) might be the useful characterization method for the surface of the silicon wafers. 

This article focuses primarily on the properties of the most extensively studied III—V and II—VI compound semiconductors and is presented in five sections (/) a brief summary of the physical (mechanical and electrical) properties of the 2incblende cubic semiconductors (2) a description of the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) process. MOCVD is the preferred technology for the commercial growth of most heteroepitaxial semiconductor material (J) the physics and (4) apphcations of electronic and photonic devices and (5) the fabrication process technology in use to create both electronic and photonic devices and circuits. 

W. R. Runyan and K. E. Bean, Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Processing Technology, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass., 1990. See discussion and references. 

SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS AND PROCESS TECHNOLOGY HANDBOOK edited by Gary E. MoGuire... 

Born in London, Paul May grew up in Redditch, Worcestershire. He went on to study at Bristol University, where he graduated with a first class honours in chemistry in 1985. He then joined GEC Hirst Research Centre in Wembley where he worked on semiconductor processing for three years, before returning to Bristol to study for a PhD in plasma etching of semiconductors. His PhD was awarded in 1991, and he then remained at Bristol to co-found the CVD diamond research group. In 1992 he was awarded a Ramsay Memorial Fellowship to continue the diamond work, and after that a Royal Society University Fellowship. In October 1999 he became a full-time lecturer in the School of Chemistry at Bristol. He is currently 36 years old. His scientific interests include diamond films, plasma chemistry, interstellar space dust, the internet and web technology. His recreational interests include table-tennis, science fiction, and heavy metal music. 

Metal in gap (MIG) or ferrite heads are produced with a combination of machining, bonding, and thin-film processes. Thin-film inductive heads are manufactured using thin-fihn processes similar those of semiconductor 1C technology (discussed in Chapter 19). The thin-film head production process is rather unusual, as it involves both very thin and very thick films. We choose to present here a detailed summary of the fabrication process of thin-film inductive heads with a single-layer spiral coil. This may serve, once again to, illustrate the centrally important role of electrochemical deposition in connection with modem information 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. 

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