Thin Films on Silicon

Silicon dioxide is the most commonly used insulator material in IC technology and the other fields of silicon device fabrication technology. This chapter explains the various aspects of the growth and deposition of silicon dioxides. It also shows the utilization of different kinds of silicon dioxides for multiple purposes in fabricating MEMS devices. It also gives some idea of the standard oxidation processes found in MEMS manufacturing. Growth methods of silicon dioxide include thermal oxidation. When a silicon wafer experiences an oxidizing ambient at elevated temperatures, the silicon dioxide is chemically grown on the surface. If the oxidizing ambient is steam, the process is known as wet oxidation, and if pure oxygen gas is employed, the process is called dry oxidation. This chapter explains the dopant effects, chlorine effects, pressure effects, stress effects, and multidimensional effects in oxidation processes. Oxidation-induced defects of silicon are also described. The structure and properties of silicon dioxides are explained in detail. The thermally grown silicon dioxide on silicon is amorphous. The noncrystalline phase likes to develop towards the thermodynamic equilibrium structure by the process known as devitrification is explained. This chapter touches on the topics of oxide processing, cleaning and etching. The cleaning intends to remove particles, photoresist residues, metallic impurities, and organic contamination. Etching is a method for material removal in many industrial processes. Silicon dioxide can be deposited with CVD if the substrate is a material other than silicon. If the substrate is silicon, thermal oxidation is the most straightforward technique to create a silicon dioxide layer. Based on the type of oxidizer, thermal oxidation is categorized as dry oxidation or wet oxidation. Dry oxidation utilizes pure oxygen to form silicon oxide at high temperatures from about 800 °C to 1,200 °C. If you are looking for high quality, high purity and cost-effective silicon dioxide, or if you require the latest silicon dioxide price, please email contact mis-asia.