Silicon Nitride Electrical Insulation

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) is a major industrial material which is produced extensively by CVD for electronic and stmctural applications. It is an excellent electrical insulator and diffusion barrier (to sodium and water vapor) and has replaced CVD oxides in many semiconductor... 

Thin films of electrical insulators are essential elements in the design and fabrication of electronic components. The most widely used insulator materials (dielectrics) are silicon oxide (Si02) and silicon nitride (Si3N4). These materials are extensively produced by CVD. 

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) is an excellent electrical insulator, which is increasingly replacing Si02 because it is a more effective diffusion barrier, especially for sodium and water which are maj or sources of corrosion and instability in microelectronic devices. As a result, it can perform... 

The design of the Pd-membrane reactor was based on the chip design of reactor [R 10]. The membrane is a composite of three layers, silicon nitride, silicon oxide and palladium. The first two layers are perforated and function as structural support for the latter. They serve also for electrical insulation of the Pd film from the integrated temperature-sensing and heater element. The latter is needed to set the temperature as one parameter that determines the hydrogen flow. 

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. 

The main goal of another microhotplate design was the replacement of all CMOS-metal elements within the heated area by materials featuring a better temperature stability. This was accomplished by introducing a novel polysilicon heater layout and a Pt temperature sensor (Sect. 4.3). The Pt-elements had to be passivated for protection and electrical insulation, so that a local deposition of a silicon-nitride passivation through a mask was performed. This silicon-nitride layer also can be varied in its thickness and with regard to its stress characteristics (compressive or tensile). This hotplate allowed for reaching operation temperatures up to 500 °C and it showed a thermal resistance of 7.6 °C/mW. 

Figure 15-29 Operation of a chemicalsensing field effect transistor. The transistor is coated with an insulating Si02 layer and a second layer of Si3N4 (silicon nitride), which is impervious to ions and improves electrical stability. The circuit at the lower left adjusts the potential difference between the reference electrode and the source in response to changes in the analyte solution such that a constant drain-source current is maintained.

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). 

Silicon nitride is prized for its hardness (9 out of 10 on the Mohr scale), its wear resistance, and its mechanical strength at elevated temperatures. It melts and dissociates into the elements at 1,900 °C, and has a maximum use temperature near 1,800 °C in the absence of oxygen and near 1,500 °C under oxidizing conditions.41 It also has a relatively low density (3.185 g/cm3). Unlike silicon carbide, silicon nitride is an electrical insulator. The bulk material has a relatively good stability to aggressive chemicals. This combination of properties underlies its uses in internal combustion engines and jet engines. 

Although most ceramics are thermal and electrical insulators, some, such as cubic boron nitride, are good conductors of heat, and others, such as rhenium oxide, conduct electricity as well as metals. Indium tin oxide is a transparent ceramic that conducts electricity and is used to make liquid crystal calculator displays. Some ceramics are semiconductors, with conductivities that become enhanced as the temperature increases. For example, silicon carbide, SiC, is used as a semiconductor material in high temperature applications. 

CVD of boron nitride films on silicon or germanium or on printed circuit boards is now a common practice in the electronic industry [154 to 162]. The high thermal conductivity combined with the excellent electrical insulation properties are most valuable for these applications [163] see additional references in Section 4.1.1.10.8, p. 129. The use of a-BN layers is of particular importance in the manufacture of electrophotographic photoreceptors (such as solar cells) and of X-ray lithographic masks (see Section 4.1.1.10.8, p. 129). In the last mentioned application, structural aspects of the deposited films are of importance. In films still containing hydrogen, (N)H moieties are depleted by annealing at about 600°C, while (B)H moieties are depleted above 1000°C [164]. Also, elastic stiffness and thermal expansion of boron nitride films have to be viewed in connection with the temperature-dependent stress of CVD-deposited boron nitride films [165]. Reviews of properties and electronic applications of boron nitride layers have appeared in Polish [166] and Japanese [167]. 

Unlike the transition-metal nitrides and unlike boron carbide and silicon carbide, the covalent nitrides are excellent electrical insulators. Their electrons are strtmgly and covalently bonded to the nucleus and are not available for metallic bonding (see Sec. 3.1 of Ch. 4). 

For the purposes of pH measurement, the hydrated silicon oxide dielectric of a MOSFET can be used like a glass membrane. Better response to pH, however, can be achieved by MNSFETs with a silicon-nitride dielectric, which are commonly used for this purpose (but not for in vivo measurement in blood because of the high thrombogenicity of Si3N4). Only the surface of the insulator may be in contact with a liquid sample other parts of the ISFET have to be electrically extremely isolated, e.g., by epoxy encapsulation. 

CVD and physical vapour deposition processes, and the resulting crystal structures, have been much studied and used to deposit silicon nitride films and grow epitaxial layers as electrical insulators and as masks for the deposition of other materials in electronic integrated circuitry. 

Elastomers are electrically insulating materials, usually in the form of silicone rubber pads, ranging in thickness from 0.001 to 0.20 in. and filled with high-thermal-conductivity materials such as alumina and boron nitride. They require a mechanical pressure to fill the voids. Figure 3.13 shows the variation of thermal impedance vs. pressure of an elastomeric pad for a TO-220 package [19]. 

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