Chapter 1

• Crystal Growth
• Wafer Preparation

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 Process Flow Overview
Si GaAs
Starting Material SiO 2 Ga,As
Distillation
and Synthesis
Reduction
Polycrystalline
semiconductor

Crystal growth Crystal growth

Single crystal

Grind, saw Grind, saw

, polish , polish

Wafer

2
 Overview
• Material preparation is the beginning of the
process in making an IC chip .
• The goal for this part of the process is to
grow the ingot that will be sliced up into
wafers.
• The wafer is a round solid silicon disc that
will have all of the processing performed
on it.

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 CRYSTAL GROWTH
Polysilicon Seed crystal
6. Edge Rounding
Crucible
1. Crystal Growth

Heater

7. Lapping

2. Single Crystal Ingot

8. Wafer Etching

3. Crystal Trimming and

Diameter Grind
Polishing
Slurry head

9. Polishing
4. Flat Grinding Polishing table

5. Wafer Slicing 10. Wafer Inspection

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 Starting Material Preparation
• The starting material for silicon is relatively
pure form of sand (SiO2) called quartzite.
• This is placed in a furnace with various
forms of Carbon.

• The Silicon treated with HCL at 300° to

form tricholosilane.

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 Starting Material Preparation
• Fractional Distillation of the liquid removes the unwanted
impurities. The purified SiHCL3 is then used in a
hydrogen reduction reaction to prepare the electronic-
grade silicon ( EGS) .

• EGS ,a polycrystalline material of high purity is the raw

material of single-crystal silicon.

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 Silicon Crystal Growth from the Melt

• The Basic Technique , Which is material in liquid form, is

Czochralski Technique.
• The Float –Zone Process also can be used to grow silicon that has
lower contamination than normally obtained from CZ Technique.
• Most popular technique is CZ.

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 Czochralski Technique

• Czochralski Process is
a Technique in Making
Single-Crystal Silicon
• A Solid Seed Crystal is
Rotated and Slowly
Extracted from a Pool
of Molten Si
• Requires Careful
Control to Give
Crystals Desired Purity
and Dimensions 8
 CYLINDER OF
MONOCRYSTALLINE
• The Silicon Cylinder is
Known as an Ingot
• Typical Ingot is About 1 or
2 Meters in Length
• Can be Sliced into
Hundreds of Smaller
Circular Pieces Called
Wafers
• Each Wafer Yields
Hundreds or Thousands of
Integrated Circuits
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 Czochralski Technique
Graphite susceptor

Sio2 crucible

Heating element
Crystal Furnace
Power supply
Puller
Rotation mechanism

Seed Holder
Crystal-pulling
mechanism
Rotation mechanism

Gas Source
Ambient
control Flow control
Exhaust system

Control
Control process parameters: Crystal
system Diameter, pull rate and rotation speed.
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 Distribution of Dopant
• In crystal-growth a known amount of Dopant is added to the melt to
obtain the desired doping concentration in the growth crystal.
• At interface, The doping concentration incorporated into the crystal
( solid) is usually different from the doping concentration of the
melt ( liquid).

• The ratio of these two concentration is defined as the equilibrium

segregation coefficient:
Equilibrium concentration of the
dopant in the Solid
cs
k0 
cl Equilibrium concentration of the
dopant in the Liquid

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 Distribution of Dopant

• Note the most values are below 1.

• As the crystal grows , the melt becomes enriched.

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 Distribution of Dopant
• Find the doping concentration in the
crystal in CZ technique?
The doping concentration in the crystal
Cs
M0 The initial doping concentration in the crystal

C0 The doping concentration in Melt

M Given point of growth

S The amount of the dopant remaining in the melt

CsdM The reduction of the dopant from the melt

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Distribution of Dopant

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K 01

K0  1

K 01
K 0  C0

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Example

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 Effective Segregation Coefficient

• There is a concentration gradient developed at

the interface, when K 0  1.

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Effective Segregation Coefficient
Cs Cs
K0  Ke 
C 10 C1

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Silicon Float-Zone Process
Gas inlet (inert)

Chuck
Polycryst
Molten zone
alline rod
(silicon)
RF Trav
eling
RF
coil

Seed crystal
Chuck
Inert gas out

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Silicon Float-Zone Process

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Silicon Float-Zone Process

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Silicon Float-Zone Process

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Silicon Float-Zone Process

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Neutron Irradiation

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 GaAs Advantages
Saturated
Substrate Electron Cutoff Operating Breakdown Fabrication
electron Noise
Type mobility Frequency Power voltage Cost
velocity

GaAs High High High High High Low High

Si Low Low Low Low Low High Low

These properties make GaAs circuitry ideal for mobile phones, satellite
communications, microwave point-to-point links, and radar systems.
However, high fabrication costs and high power consumption have made
GaAs circuits unable to compete with silicon CMOS circuits in most
applications.

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Native Gallium
Ga & As Elemental Gallium
With 99.9999% purity

Bayer Process

Zone passes refining

Native Arsenic

Elemental Arsenic
With 99.9999% purity
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 GaAs Polycrystalline
Elemental Gallium
With 99.9999% purity

Synthesis Process

Elemental Gallium
With 99.9999% purity
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 GaAs Crystal-growth
• The starting materials for the synthesis of
polycrystalline gallium arsenide are the
elemental , chemically pure gallium and
arsenic.

• The behavior of a combination can be

described by phase diagram.
GaAs Crystal-growth

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 Example
• Find the fraction of melt that will be
solidified?
Ta Cm Weight percent scale

Ml Weight of the liquid.

Tb Ms Weight of the solid (GaAs).

Cs Concentration of Dopant in the Liquid.
Cl Concentration of Dopant in the Solid.

Ml  Cl Weight of the Arsenic in the Liquid.

Ms  Cs Weight of the Arsenic in the solid (GaAs).
Ml  Cl  Ms  Cs  ( Ml  Ms ) * Cm Tototal Weight of the Arsenic in Ta and Tb.

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Example ( cont.)

Ml  Cl  Ms  Cs  ( Ml  Ms ) * Cm

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GaAs Crystal-growth

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Bridgman Technique

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Equilibrium Segregation Coefficient

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Wafer Coding

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Packed Wafers

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 Chapter Overview
• Raw materials (SiO2) are refined to produce electronic grade
silicon with a purity unmatched by any other available material
on earth.
• CZ crystal growth produces structurally perfect Si single
crystals which are cut into wafers and polished.
• Dopants can be incorporated during crystal growth
• Point, line, and volume (1D, 2D, and 3D) defects can be present
in crystals, particularly after high temperature processing.
• Point defects are "fundamental" and their concentration
depends on temperature (exponentially), on doping level and
on other processes like ion implantation which can create non-
equilibrium transient concentrations of these defects.

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