Microengineering Technology Kaplan Singapore

Homework Assignment
Your homework consists of a reading assignment and the writing of a report. Part II of
your handout is a set of experiments on integrated circuit manufacture designed for
students taking the course in Australia. Your task is to gain an appreciation for the
objectives of the experiment and report your understanding of the process by answering
few questions. You will refer to both part I of the handout and your lecture notes to
complete your assignment.
The experiment is a simplified MOS process, where only the PMOS transistor is
manufactured. In-house facilities do not permit the use of the full CMOS process nor the
full CMOS standards. For example the silicon nitride is not used to define the active
areas, instead, the field oxide is grown over the entire wafer, and windows opened over
where the source and drain are to be doped. Furthermore, the polysilicon process is not
used for the gate terminal, instead metallisation of the gate is achieved in the same step
as the making of contacts to the drain and source. A sketch of the PMOS profile is given
below.

Questions
1. Write a short introduction in which you describe the PMOSFET principle in
enhancement mode. Comment on the manufacturing parameters that are
controllable and which would allow for threshold voltage minimisation, and
channel conductance optimisation.

2. What kind of oxidation (wet or dry) carried out in Lab 1? Why this choice?
3. What is the role of the nitrogen use in the beginning and end of oxidation?
4. In measuring the oxide thickness, the interferometer which uses a light source
with = 7300 displays a frequency corresponding to k = 3. Calculate the
thickness of the grown oxide. Note that the anticipated thickness in the
experiment recipe is only a guide, and thus different from the actual thickness.
5. What colour of reflected light would the wafer give off upon visual inspection?
6. What is the thickness of the silicon layer consumed in the oxidation process?
7. Assuming the oxidation process falls in the long-time category; calculate the
parabolic rate constant B used in the theoretical modelling of the oxidation
process?
8. What is the role of the primer used in the beginning of lab 2?
9. Draw the top view of the mask used in lab 2.
10. How can you tell by inspection that the oxide etch is complete?
11. After 2 minutes of etching T1, the oxide thickness is measured to be 0.55 .
Compute the etch rate and the time necessary to etch the device wafer.
12. Why is it that over-etching the oxide by 20% of the time needed is safe for the
device wafer?
13. After the wet etch in lab 3, a four point-probe with a form factor of 1 is used to
measure the doping level. For a forced current of 4 mA we measure V = 9V.
Calculate the sheet resistance.
14. Using the ball-grind method on T2 we measure the depth of the PN junction at
0.6 . Assuming the hole mobility of 500 cm2/Vs, calculate the average bulk
concentration of Boron in the source and drain.
15. Draw a cross section of the wafer at the end of the doping process in lab 3.
16. Draw the top view of the mask used in lab 4 and state its purpose.
17. What is the expected etching time necessary for lab 4?
18. Draw the cross-section of the device wafer after oxidation in lab 5.
19. Draw the top view of the mask used in lab 5.
20. Draw the cross-section of the device wafer after etching in lab 5.
21. If you were to use the lift off process as an alternative to etching performed in lab
7, write a short paragraph in which you describe the sequence of steps, and mask
needed to achieve the same result as in lab7.