Bulk Crystals

Wire Saw used to

slice boule into
wafers

http://www.meyerburger.ch/typo3temp/pics/DS261_Schnitt_12899e5ad5.jpg

New 450mm Si
wafers compared to
300mm wafers
http://www.geardiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/comparison_300mm-450mm-wafer_01.jpg
 Epitaxial / Crystal Growth
The technique of growing an oriented single-crystal
layer on a substrate (bulk) crystal wafer
– The crystals may be the same material (homoepitaxy)
or
– They maybe different materials (heteroepitaxy)

Common Epitaxial Growth Methods:

• Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)

• Liquid-Phase Epitaxy (LPE)
• Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)
 Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE)

http://en.rusnano.com/upload/OldNews/Files/33971/current.gif
 Step Edge Epitaxial Crystal Growth

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.1799.6005 (Fig. 4.1)

 Metal-Organic Chemical Vapour
Deposition (MOCVD)

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Figure-1-Schematic-working-principle-of-an-atmospheric-
pressure-MOCVD-system-The-bubbler-systems_47331773_fig1
 Metal-Organic Chemical Vapour
Deposition (MOCVD)

http://ir.veeco.com/news-events/press-releases/press-release-details/2014/Veeco-Launches-
EPIK700-MOCVD-System-to-Accelerate-Adoption-of-Solid-State-Lighting/default.aspx

http://agnitron.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/IMG_7591Lucius-reduced.jpg
 What defines a crystal?
To start: a Bravais Lattice

Crystal created by propagating the lattice vectors

 Primitive Cell

The smallest cell that can be used to

form the lattice is the primitive cell
Non-primitive cells (conventional cells) are used
to reflect the symmetry of the crystal
Graphene

Not a Bravais
Lattice
 3D Lattices

The basis vectors are extended to 3D

 http://www.seas.upenn.edu/~chem101/sschem/bravais.gif

There are 230 possible non-Bravais lattices

However, due to the translational symmetry condition
demanded of a lattice, there are only 14 unique Bravais
lattice configurations.
 Important Lattices

The dimension a for a cubic unit cell is called the lattice constant.
 Lattice with a basis

http://britneyspears.ac/physics/crystals/images/crystal.gif

A crystal is a lattice with a basis

 Lattice with a basis

C’ D’
C D

b
A’ B’

A a B

A non-Bravais lattice can be described as

a Bravais lattice with a basis
Graphene

A Bravais
Lattice with a
2 atom basis
Escher Lizards
Quasi Crystal

A 5-fold
symmetric
pattern cannot
be a Bravais
Lattice
 Diamond Lattice

A non-Bravais lattice composed of two intertwined

fcc lattices separated by
 Diamond Lattice

The lattice for C (diamond), Si, Ge

 Zincblende Lattice

The lattice for GaAs, InAs, InSb

 Important Lattices

The dimension a for a cubic unit cell is called the lattice constant.

Calculate how many atoms per cell ( sc = 1 ; bcc = 2 ).

Can calculate the maximum fraction of the lattice volume that can be filled
with atoms by approximating the atoms as hard spheres.
Packing of hard spheres in an fcc lattice
Packing of hard spheres - fcc lattice
 Heteroepitaxial Growth
Allows for many different material combinations
NOTE: Lattice constants must be similar!!
 Heteroepitaxial Growth
Allows for many different material combinations
NOTE: Lattice constants must be similar!!

Vegard’s Law
(for alloys)
 Vegard’s Law
What is the lattice constant of Si0.35Ge0.65?
 Lattice Mismatch

t < tc t > tc

Epitaxial layers thinner than the critical thickness tc will become strain.
Those thicker will experience misfit dislocations
Strained Silicon

IEEE Spectrum ( Volume: 39, Issue: 10, Oct 2002 )

http://www.rroij.com/open-access/strained-silicon-
devicesmechanism--applications.php?aid=42663
Crystal Defects – Point Defects

Nd = A*Exp (-Ea / kBT)

Nd is the concentration of point defects,
A is a constant,
Ea is the activation energy (2.6 eV for vacancies
and 4.5 eV for interstitials),
T is the absolute temperature,
kB is the Boltzmann constant
 Crystal Defects – Point Defects

InP Vacancies

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc
e/article/pii/S0925963516300759

High Power
Diamond Devices

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1
369702103006321
 Miller Indices
• Miller indices are used to describe various
crystal planes and directions

• The Miller indices are defined by where the

planes cross the axes

• Because the planes are equivalent, they can

be translated anywhere in the crystal

• If a plane is parallel to an axis, the Miller index

for that direction is zero
 Miller Indices
1. Find the intercepts of the plane with the crystal axes
and express these intercepts as integral multiples of the
basis vectors (the plane can be moved in and out from
the origin, retaining its orientation, until such an integral
intercept is discovered on each axis).

2. Take the reciprocals of the three integers found in

step 1 and reduce these to the smallest set of integers h,
k, and l which have the same relationship to each other
as the three reciprocals.

3. Label the plane (hkl).

Sample Plane z

c
b
y
a

Intercepts: 4, -6, 3

Reciprocals:
x
Reduce:
 Common Planes / Directions

(100) (110) (111)

[100] [110] [111]

• Because of symmetry: many lattice planes are equivalent.

• The Miller Indices of equivalent planes (family of planes) are
enclosed in curly braces {} instead of parenthesis ().
• As with planes, directions [100], [010] and [001] are equivalent and
called the <100> family of directions.
• Direction [hkl] is perpendicular to the plane (hkl) in cubic lattices.
Si Wafer Flats

A Brief Introduction to MEMS and NEMS, Fig. 9.1, W.C. Crone.

 Why Silicon
• Low carrier mobility (m)
–slower circuits (compared to GaAs)

Material Mobility (cm2/V-s)

Si mn = 1500, mp = 460
Ge mn = 3900, mp = 1900
GaAs mn = 8000, mp = 380

• Indirect bandgap:
–Weak absorption and emission of light
–Most optoelectronic applications not possible
 Silicon Advantage
1. Large variety of process steps possible without the
problem of decomposition
–as in the case of compound semiconductors

2. Si has a wider bandgap than Ge

–higher operating temperature (125-175 °C vs. ~85 °C)

3. Si is cheap and abundant

4. Si readily forms a native oxide (SiO2)

–high-quality insulator
–protects and “passivates” underlying circuitry
–helps in patterning
–useful for dopant masking
 Semiconductor Processing
• Mechanical, metallurgical, chemical and
electronic properties differ along different
directions and planes

• During device fabrication, one must note:

– Crystals cleave along certain planes

– Chemical etching speeds differ along

certain directions
 Quantum Mechanics
• One of the most important technical
advances of the 20th century

• Critical in all aspects the description of

–Light, Atoms, Electrons, Solids
• In semiconductor devices
–Properties are dictated by quantum effects

• New 21st century applications in:

–Nanotechnology
–Quantum information processing
 Photoelectric Effect

Electrons are ejected when the

frequency of the light is greater than the
“cut-off” frequency
 Photoelectric Effect

Electron emission cut-off is dependent

on the material used
 Photoelectric Effect

Increasing light intensity increases current, but

stopping voltage remains the same
 Photoelectric Effect

Stopping voltage changes for different

frequencies (colour) of light
 Photoelectric Effect
• One would expect that brighter light would cause the
electrons to gain more energy:
–Instead brighter light increased the rate of electron
emission.

• More puzzling was the fact that only the frequency

(colour) of the light affected the ejected electron’s
energy

• Einstein proposed (1905) that light was emitted in

discrete bundles
 Einstein’s Solution
• Einstein proposed (1905) that light was emitted in
discrete bundles
–Based on Planck’s hypothesis
–Planck didn’t really believe this when he proposed it, but it
made the mathematical model work for his explanation of
Blackbody Radiation (Nobel - 1918).

• Einstein suggested that not only was light emitted in

bundles, but that it remained in bundles, and was
absorbed in bundles.

• The electrons in the metal gained energy by

absorbing one of these bundles.
 Einstein’s Solution
Light energy is contained in discrete units,
called Photons, with an energy:

h: Planck’s Constant
c: Spped of light
: Frequency of light
l: Wavelength of light
: Work function of metal

Kinetic energy of ejected electrons

 Sun Burns:
A Biological “Photoelectric Effect”

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/Files/2642/5/MicroBio_img021.gif
 Sun Burns:
A Biological “Photoelectric Effect”

http://www.temis.nl/uvradiation/info/figs/action_sm.gif
 Photons
• EM Waves are quantized
–Light, radio waves, X-rays

• EM Waves consist of individual particles called:

PHOTONS!
• Each photon:
– Carries a discrete amount of energy
– This energy is given by E = h
– Propagates at the speed of light.

• Planck’s constant:
– h = 6.63 × 10-34 J·s = 4.14 × 10-15 eV·s

• Total energy in an EM Wave is simply the sum of the

energy of the individual photons
 Example: Photoelectric Effect
• When a metal is illuminated with ultraviolet light with l =
193 nm the stopping potential is 1.74 V.
• Identify the metal by calculating the work function.
• Find the wavelength corresponding to the cutoff
frequency.
 Example: Photoelectric Effect
• When a metal is illuminated with ultraviolet light with l =
193 nm the stopping potential is 1.74 V.
• Identify the metal by calculating the work function.
• Find the wavelength corresponding to the cutoff
frequency.