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

Deposition of Silicon using sputter deposition technique

At DANCHIP you can also deposit silicon using Wordentec, PVD co-sputter/evaporation or IBE Ionfab300 sputter systems. (There is also a Si sputter target in Alcatel, but the process is not running stable nowadays). One of the advantages here is that you can deposit on any material you like.

Comparison of the methods for deposition of Silicon

Sputter (PVD co-sputter/evaporation) 4" and 6" Furnace PolySi (Furnace LPCVD PolySi) Sputter (Wordentec) Sputter (IBE/IBSD Ionfab 300) Sputter (Alcatel)
General description Sputter deposition of Si LPCVD (low pressure cheimical vapour deposition) of polysilicon Sputter deposition of Si. Sputter deposition of Si. Not recommended as first choice for Si deposition.
Doping facility None Can be doped with boron or phosphorus during deposition None None None


Pre-clean RF Ar clean New wafers can go directly into the furnace. Processed wafers have to be RCA cleaned RF Ar clean None RF Ar clean
Layer thickness 10Å to about 3000Å ~50Å to 2µm, if thicker layers are needed please ask the furnace team. 10Å to about 3000Å No defined limits 10Å to 2000Å
Deposition rate Dependent on process parameters, but in the order of 1 Å/s. See more here
  • 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 6-8 nm/min. See more here. 2Å/s to 8Å/s (see below).
Process temperature Option: heating wafer up to 400 deg C 560 oC (amorph) and 620 oC (poly) ? Platen: 5-60 oC ?
Step coverage . Good . Not known 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
  • 4x 6" wafers or
  • 4x 4" wafers or
  • 4x 2" wafers
  • 1-25 wafers of 4"
  • For other sizes ask the ThinFilm group
  • 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
Allowed substrates
  • Silicon wafers
  • Quartz wafers
  • Pyrex wafers
Fused silica, Silicon, oxide, nitride
  • Silicon wafers
  • Quartz wafers
  • Pyrex wafers
  • Same materials as on the allowed materials below
  • Silicon wafers
  • Quartz wafers
  • Pyrex wafers
Allowed material
  • Silicon oxide
  • Silicon (oxy)nitride
  • Photoresist
  • PMMA
  • Mylar
  • SU-8
  • Any metals
  • 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
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.