Microfabrication Facilities at the Scottish Microelectronics Centre (SMC)

Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems (IMNS)

Capability Profile

1.  INTRODUCTION

* Not available
× indicates availability

If you would like to access some of these facilities or would like more details on the technologies available please contact Tom Stevenson (Tom.Stevenson@ee.ed.ac.uk), Anthony Walton (Anthony.Walton@ee.ed.ac.uk), Andrew Bunting (Andy.Bunting@ee.ed.ac.uk) or some other member of the IMNS located in the Scottish Microelectronics Centre (SMC).

Photograph of the SMC building. The cleanrooms are the housed in the low portion of the building. The offices and laboratories are located in the four storey portion with the second floor consisting of space for rental by external organisations.

Central WIP corridor that provides access to the eight class 10 cleanroom bays.	Cleanroom bay before hookup of equipment. Each bay is serviced with DI, town and chilled water, nitrogen, compressed air, power, gases and vacuum.

2.  ENVIRONMENT

3.  WAFER FABRICATION EQUIPMENT

DC Magnetron Sputter Coater

Oxford Plasmalab System 400 magnetron sputtering system capable of sputtering Al/1%Si, Al, W, Ta, Ti and TiN on 6 and 8 inch wafers. Ion beam pre-cleaning is also available.

Diffusion Furnace Tubes

• Dry oxidation (with HCl gettering)
• Wet oxidation (burnt hydrogen with HCl gettering)
• Nitrogen anneals (6" available)
• Phosphorus deposition (solid source or POCl3)
• LPCVD of Polysilicon
• LPCVD of Silicon Nitride

Dielectric Deposition

• Oxford Plasma Technology ECR deposition of SiO2 and Nitride. (3-6 inch wafers)
• STS Multiplex PECVD vacuum load-lock system configured for SiOx and low stress nitride. Capable of coating up to 8" wafers.

Dry Etching

• STS PF 508 barrel reactor for plasma ashing of photoresist from up to 150 wafers/run. (3-8 inch wafers).
• STS Multiplex load locked aluminium and polysilicon RIE etcher using SiCl4, and Cl2 chemistry (3-6 inch wafers).
• Plasmatherm PK244O RIE system using Fluorine chemistry to anisotropically etch silicon dioxide and nitride from 20 × 3 in wafers/run. It can also be used to etch 4-8 inch wafers.
• STS Multiplex ICP - Load locked inductively coupled plasma etch system configured for deep Si etching. Capable of etching up to 8" wafers.

Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP)

• Presi Mecapol E460 polisher configured for 3-8 inch wafers.
• SVG 8600 series double sided 6 inch scrubber.

Wet Etching

Wafer Lithography

• Dehydration bake/ vapour prime, coat, hotplate softbake.
• Post exposure bake, spray/puddle develop, hotplate hardbake.

Mask aligning and exposure are carried out using contact printing or DSW (reduction projection printing) as appropriate. DSW printing is preferred for those chips greater than 6 mm square or those including geometries less than 3 microns. The machines in use are:

Contact printer : Cobilt 2020 soft contact (3")

Projection printer (double sided) : Karl Suss MA8/B6, (3, 4, 6 & 8")

• 10X reduction stepper with 1.0 micron resolution over
• 1 cm square field and die by die alignment to ±0.3 micron.

• 5X reduction stepper with 1.0 micron resolution over
• 1.4 cm square field.

• 5X reduction stepper with 0.45 micron resolution over
• 2.2 cm square field.

4.  IN-LINE INSPECTION AND MEASUREMENT

Profiling of wafer topography is available using a Dektak Model 8000 surface profiler to record step height variations in the range 0.01 to 60 microns.

Refractive index and thickness of visually transparent dielectrics such as silicon dioxide and silicon nitride are measured using an Applied Materials Ellipsometer model AME500 and a Sopra SE-5 Spectroscopic ellipsometer. This method is particularly useful in the thickness range 0.005 to 0.2 microns. Thicker dielectric layers and polysilicon layers are more readily measured using the Nanoscope Model 010-180 reflectometer.

Sheet resistance of large area process layers is measured using a Veeco 1000 4 point probe.

5.  ASSEMBLY

• Dicing Saw - Disco 8" wafer chuck.
• Dicing Saw - Kulicke & Soffa Model 602M with 6" wafer chuck.
• Dicing Saw - Tempress Model 602M with 4" wafer chuck.
• Eutectic Die Attach - Dage-Precima Model EDB65 with mechanical scrub wetting.
• Wire Bond - Kulicke & Soffa Model 472 gold wire ultrasonic ball bonder

6.  OFF-LINE EVALUATION AND TEST

Capacitance/Voltage Testing

• Low frequency CV
• High frequency CV
• Mobile ion concentration (temperature/bias)
• Interface trap concentration
• Impurity doping profiles in silicon

Parametric Testing

7.  DEVICE AND PROCESS SIMULATION