Specific Process Knowledge/Thin film deposition/Deposition of Silicon

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PolySilicon can be deposited in several Danchip tools. Either it can be sputtered or be deposited in the PolySilicon furnace. In the chart below you can compare the two different deposition methods:


Deposition of PolySilicon using LPCVD

Danchip has two furnaces for deposition of LPCVD (Low Chemical Vapour Deposition) polysilicon: A 6" furnace (installed in 2011) for deposition of standard polySi, amorphous polySi and boron doped polySi on 100 mm or 150 mm wafers and a 4" furnace (installed in 1995) for deposition of standard polySi, amorphous polySi, boron- and phosphorous doped polySi on 100 mm wafers. In LabManager the two furnaces are named "Furnace: LPCVD Poly-Si (4") (B4)" and "Furnace: LPCVD Poly-Si (6") (E2)", respectively.


Deposition of Silicon using sputter deposition technique

At DANCHIP you can also deposit silicon the using Wordentec, the Lesker Sputter system or the IBE Ionfab300 sputter systems. One of the advantages here is that you can deposit on any material you like.

Comparison of the methods for deposition of Silicon

4" and 6" Furnace PolySi (Furnace LPCVD PolySi) Sputter (Wordentec) Sputter (IBE/IBSD Ionfab 300) Sputter (Alcatel) Sputter (Lesker) E-beam evaporation (III-V Dielectric evaporator)
General description LPCVD (low pressure cheimical vapour deposition) of polysilicon Sputter deposition of Si. Ion beam sputter deposition of Si. Sputter deposition of Si. Not recommended as first choice for Si deposition. Sputter deposition of Si. E-beam evaporation of Si.
Doping facility Can be doped with boron or phosphorus during deposition None None None None None
Pre-clean New wafers can go directly into the furnace. Processed wafers have to be RCA cleaned RF Ar clean None RF Ar clean RF Ar clean  
Layer thickness ~50Å to 2µm, if thicker layers are needed please ask the furnace team. 10Å to about 3000Å No defined limits 10Å to 2000Å 10Å to 2500Å
Deposition rate
  • undoped, boron doped:~100Å/min
  • Phospher doped:~20Å/min

In the order of 1 Å/s, but dependendt on process parameters. See more here.

About 5 nm/min. See more here. 2Å/s to 8Å/s (see below). Depends on process parameters, roughly 1 Å/s. 1Å/s to 5Å/s (see below).
Process temperature 560 oC (amorph) and 620 oC (poly) ? Platen: 5-60 oC ? Wafers can be heated to 100-200°C 20-250 oC
Step coverage Good . Not known Poor Poor
Adhesion Good for fused silica, silicon oxide, silicon nitride, silicon . Not tested Bad for pyrex, for other materials we do not know    
Batch size
  • 1-30 wafers (4" furnace)
  • 1-25 wafes (6" furnace)
  • 24x 2" wafers or
  • 6x 4" wafers or
  • 6x 6" wafers
  • Several small samples mounted with capton tape
  • 1x 50 mm wafer
  • 1x 100 mm wafer
  • 1x 150 mm wafer
  • 1x 200 mm wafer
  • Up to 1x4" wafers
  • smaller pieces
  • Up to 1x6" wafers
  • smaller pieces
  • 2"
  • chips
Allowed substrates
  • Silicon wafers (new or RCA cleaned)
    • with layers of silicon oxide or silicon (oxy)nitride
    • from the A, B and E stack furnaces
  • Quartz/fused silica wafers (RCA cleaned)
  • Silicon wafers
  • Quartz wafers
  • Pyrex wafers
  • Same materials as on the allowed materials below
  • Silicon wafers
  • Quartz wafers
  • Pyrex wafers
  • Silicon wafers
  • Quartz wafers
  • Pyrex wafers
  • Silicon wafers
  • Quartz wafers
  • Pyrex wafers
Allowed material Only those above (under allowed substrates).
  • Silicon oxide
  • Silicon (oxy)nitride
  • Photoresist
  • PMMA
  • Mylar
  • SU-8
  • Metals
  • Silicon, silicon oxides, silicon nitrides
  • Metals from the +list
  • Metals from the -list
  • Alloys from the above list
  • Stainless steel
  • Glass
  • III-V materials
  • Resists
  • Polymers
  • Capton tape
  • Silicon oxide
  • Silicon (oxy)nitride
  • Photoresist
  • PMMA
  • Mylar
  • SU-8
  • Metals
  • Silicon oxide
  • Silicon (oxy)nitride
  • Photoresist
  • Metals
  • III-V materials
  • Silicon wafers
  • Resists
Comment The system is used both for IBSD and IBE. Si deposition can only be performed when it is set up for IBSD. This process is not running really stable nowadays.