Wafers, silicon

Fig. XI-3. Ellipsometric film thickness as a function of number of layers of methyl 23-(trichlorosilyl)tricosanoate on silicon wafers (Ref. 33).

Thin oxide films may be prepared by substrate oxidation or by vapour deposition onto a suitable substrate. An example of the fomrer method is the preparation of silicon oxide thin-films by oxidation of a silicon wafer. In general, however, the thickness and stoichiometry of a film prepared by this method are difficult to control. 

Undeniably, one of the most important teclmological achievements in the last half of this century is the microelectronics industry, the computer being one of its outstanding products. Essential to current and fiiture advances is the quality of the semiconductor materials used to construct vital electronic components. For example, ultra-clean silicon wafers are needed. Raman spectroscopy contributes to this task as a monitor, in real time, of the composition of the standard SC-1 cleaning solution (a mixture of water, H2O2 and NH OH) [175] that is essential to preparing the ultra-clean wafers. 

Light microscopy is of great importance for basic research, analysis in materials science and for the practical control of fabrication steps. Wlien used conventionally it serves to reveal structures of objects which are otherwise mvisible to the eye or magnifying glass, such as micrometre-sized structures of microelectronic devices on silicon wafers. The lateral resolution of the teclmique is detennined by the wavelength of tire light... 

Rutherford backscattering spectrometry is the measurement of the energies of ions scattered back from the surface and the outer microns (1 micron = 1 pm) of a sample. Typically, helium ions with energies around 2 MeV are used and the sample is a metal coated silicon wafer that has been ion implanted with about a... 

Monolayers can be transferred onto many different substrates. Most LB depositions have been perfonned onto hydrophilic substrates, where monolayers are transferred when pulling tire substrate out from tire subphase. Transparent hydrophilic substrates such as glass [18,19] or quartz [20] allow spectra to be recorded in transmission mode. Examples of otlier hydrophilic substrates are aluminium [21, 22, 23 and 24], cliromium [9, 25] or tin [26], all in their oxidized state. The substrate most often used today is silicon wafer. Gold does not establish an oxide layer and is tlierefore used chiefly for reflection studies. Also used are silver [27], gallium arsenide [27, 28] or cadmium telluride wafer [28] following special treatment. 

Finally, in 1985, the results of an extensive investigation in which adsorjDtion took place onto an aluminium oxide layer fonned on a film of aluminium deposited in vacuo onto a silicon wafer was published by Allara and Nuzzo 1127, 1281. Various carboxylic acids were dissolved in high-purity hexadecane and allowed to adsorb from this solution onto the prepared aluminium oxide surface. It was found that for chains with more than 12 carbon atoms, chains are nearly in a vertical orientation and are tightly packed. For shorter chains, however, no stable monolayers were found. The kinetic processes involved in layer fonnation can take up to several days. 

The thyristor is a semiconductor device made of germanium or silicon wafers and comprises three or more Junctions, which can be switched from the OFF state to the ON state or vice versa. Basically it is a ptipn junction, as shown in Figure 6.20(a) and can be considered as composed of two transistors with npn and pnpjunctions, as illustrated in Figure 6.20(b). It does not turn ON when it is forward biased, unlike a diode, unless there is a gate firing pulse. Thyristors are forced commutated (a technique... 

Fig. 9.6. A typical integrated circuit. The silicon wafer is cut from a large single crystal using a chemical sow - mechanical sawing would introduce too many dislocations.

Multielement analysis, excellent detection limits for heavy metals quantitative measurement of heavy-metal trace contamination on silicon wafers... 

The term direct TXRF refers to surface impurity analysis with no surface preparation, as described above, achieving detection Umits of 10 °—10 cm for heavy-metal atoms on the silicon surface. The increasit complexity of integrated circuits fabricated from silicon wafers will demand even greater surfrce purity in the future, with accordingly better detection limits in analytical techniques. Detection limits of less than 10 cm can be achieved, for example, for Fe, using a preconcentration technique known as Vapor Phase Decomposition (VPD). 

Figure 4 Direct TXRF (upper spectrum, recording time 3000 s) and VPD-TXRF (lower spectrum, recording time 300 s) on a silicon wafer surface. The sensitivity enhancement for Zn and Fe is two orders of magnitude. The measurements were made with a nonmonochromatized instrument.

Figure 5 Effect of cleaning on the surface purity of silicon wafers, as measured by VPD-...

Figure 6 Computer-simulated ERS spectrum (adapted from ref. 6) for the case of 1.6-MeV He probing a silicon wafer implanted with 0.9 x 10 H atoms/cm at 10 keV (mean range of ions = 1750 A, = 20°, a = 10°).

Static SIMS is also capable of analyzing liquids and fine particles or powders. A liquid is ofren prepared by putting down an extremely thin layer on a flat substrate, such as a silicon wafer. Particles are easily prepared by pressing them onto doublesided tape. No further sample preparation, such as gold- or carbon-coating, is required. 

NAA has been used to determine trace impurities in polysilicon, single-crystal boules, silicon wafers, and processed silicon, as well as plastics used for packaging. ... 

Figure 1 Mechanical profiler trace of a region on the unpolished back of a silicon wafer.

Figure 3 Optical profiler measurements of a region on the unpolished back of a silicon wafer line scan (a) and 3D display (b) (Courtesy of WYCO Corp.).

As an example, consider again the back surface of the silicon wafer used in the mechanical profiler example. Eigure 4a, an SEM micrograph taken at 45° tilt, shows a surface covered with various sized square-shaped features that often overlap. This information cannot be discerned from the mechanical profiler trace, but can be obtained using a 3D optical profiler measurement. Eigures 4b and 4c are also... 

Figure 4 SEM micrographs of a region on the back of a silicon wafer (a) and (b) show the surface at different magnifications ic) is a cross sectional view (Courtesy of P. M. Kahora, AT T Bell Laboratories).

Figure 3.5 shows the positive SSIMS spectrum from a silicon wafer, illustrating both the allocation of peaks and potential isobaric problems. SSIMS reveals many impurities on the surface, particularly hydrocarbons, for which it is especially sensitive. The spectrum also demonstrates reduction of isobaric interference by high-mass resolution. For reasons discussed in Sect. 3.1.3, the peak heights cannot be taken to be directly proportional to the concentrations on the surface, and standards must be used to quantify trace elements. 

Figure 3.12 depicts TOP SIMS spectra obtained from ODN and PNA immobilized on silanized silicon wafers. The spectra clearly demonstrate that the masses corresponding to POi and PO3 provide the best correlation of the presence of ODN, enabling their use for precise distinction between ODN and PNA. The CFJ and C2O2FJ peaks seen in the PNA spectra represent trifluoroacetic acid, which was part of the PNA solution. Deprotonated (Cyt-H) and (Thy-H) signals of the bases cytosine and thymine are observed for both immobilized PNA and ODN sequences and can be used to detect the presence of these bases. 

TOP SIMS imaging can also be used to detect extremely small particles on a variety of substrates, e.g. silicon wafers or photographic films [3.40]. Figure 3.16 depicts... 

Vapor-phase decomposition and collection (Figs 4.16 to 4.18) is a standardized method of silicon wafer surface analysis [4.11]. The native oxide on wafer surfaces readily reacts with isothermally distilled HF vapor and forms small droplets on the hydrophobic wafer surface at room temperature [4.66]. These small droplets can be collected with a scanning droplet. The scanned, accumulated droplets finally contain all dissolved contamination in the scanning droplet. It must be dried on a concentrated spot (diameter approximately 150 pm) and measured against the blank droplet residue of the scanning solution [4.67-4.69]. VPD-TXRF has been carefully evaluated against standardized surface analytical methods. The user is advised to use reliable reference materials [4.70-4.72]. 

Figure 7.3. The evolution of electronics a vacuum tube, a discrete transistor in its protective package, and a 150 nun (diameter) silicon wafer patterned w ith hundreds of integrated circuit chips. Each chip, about I enr in area, contains over one million transistors, 0..35 pm in size (courtesy M.L. Green, Bell Laboratories/Lucent Technologies).

Tirrell et al. [42,43] studied the role of interfacial chains in a more detailed fashion. Tirrell et al. [42,43] used a crosslinked PDMS cap in contact with a silicon wafer on to which a,o)-hydroxyl terminated PDMS chains are tethered by adsorption from a solution. The molecular weight of the narrow disperse PDMS samples was in the range of 20,000-700,000. The surface chain density was given by27 yj g e 0 is the volume fraction of PDMS in solution. 

Silicon wafer grinding and dicing tapes used in electronic chip manufacturing. 

Another important factor is the corrosiveness of the adhesive. This may be especially important in those cases where the PSA has direct contact with the bare wire, the electronic component, or the silicon wafer in a dicing operation. In those cases where an electrical current is running through the device, electrolytic corrosion processes may occur, especially if moisture can penetrate into the adhesive or bond line. 

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