Course Outline
IC Process
COURSE TITLE
NAME OF LECTURER
Prof. Robert Mroczynski
COURSE DESCRIPTION
The course offers an introduction and some advanced knowledge in the area of Semiconductor
Technologies and Fabrication Techniques. Based on this knowledge, the ability to understand the
fundamental fabrication principle of modern semiconductor devices (ICs, M(O)EMS, solar cells,
memories, etc.) should be acquired.
Integrated circuits (IC) are ubiquitous, sometimes we are not even aware of it. ICs are the basic
elements of every electronic device, among them: household appliances, computers and PCs, TVs,
sensors mounted in cars and planes, mobile phones, watches, DVDs, MP3 players, etc. The easy
integration of ICs with optical or mechanical systems (MOEMS) has allowed the creation of the so-called
Systems-on-chip (SoCs), which are systems that contain a lot of different devices, fabricated by different
technologies, and integrated into a single electronic system. The emergence of such systems would not
have been possible without the advances in miniaturization and the continuous development of
semiconductor devices technology.
Technology, which is the study the methods of fabrication of electronic devices is highly interdisciplinary.
It includes the knowledge in many scientific fields such as chemistry, physics, materials engineering,
mechanics, optics, and above all - the electronics. ICs a long time ago have entered the scale 'nano’,
which is the size of the extremely small objects. The fabrication conditions are also extreme and unique.
What are the conditions, what are fabrication techniques, what are the stages of the IC production, how
long it takes and how much it costs...? To these and other questions I will try to answer during this
proposed course…
The lecture should have brought a wide range of Listeners the specific conditions and the different steps
of the manufacturing process of ICs. Due to the inability to perform practical exercises in 'clean-room '
laboratory, the multimedia presentation will include specially prepared movies depicting the interior of the
laboratory and the various technological equipment and processes discussed in the course of the
proposed lecture. The proposed course will enlighten Students 'the kitchen' of ICs, which dominated the
world market of electronic devices.
RECOMMENDED READINGS
Definitely, Students have to have the fundamental knowledge about basic semiconductor devices
physics and applications, i.e. p-n and metal-semiconductor junctions, transistors (BJT, as well as MOS),
logic gates etc. In this case, Students are prepared to understand why we need unique and extraordinary
conditions to fabricate such devices which I will try to present during the proposed course. However, I
assume that Students at the early stage of their studies, have been provided with that information during
lectures (like Fundamental of Electronics or similar).
For the purposes of my course I propose some books which totally cover the Fabrication Techniques
area, so students would have great sources to further studies, however, they do not have to read
“everything” before since I will try to provide the most interesting and important information during my
lectures (from my point of view – please look at the agenda). Please, treat below list not very strict but I
think there is provided a very nice material to study.
1. “Handbook of Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology” by Robert Doering and Yoshio Nishi, CRC
Press 2008.
2. “Fundamentals of Semiconductor Fabrication” by Gary S. May and Simon M. Sze, John Wiley & Sons,
2002.
3. “Silicon Processing for the VLSI Era, Vol. 1: Process Technology” by Stanley Wolf and Richard N.
Tauber, Lattice Press 2000.
TEACHING METHODS
The course covers standard lectures which will be presented as a Power Point presentations. In general,
the technology is always better understandable if it is presented by figures, so slides will be very rich of
colorful pictures, figures, tables which will show easy to compare and understand data. There will be also
used many cross-sections of devices, SEM, TEM, AFM photographs and other pictures of devices at
different stage of their fabrication technology to clearly show Students what I’m talking about. In the case
of ‘clean-room’ facilities which is a very important part of my course, I will put some movies from different
laboratories around the world to show Students such extreme conditions. I already have received
approval (or I will receive – negotiations are being conducted) from those institutions to show such
movies, some of them are available in public area (i.e. on the internet).
The semiconductor fabrication is a very specific and unique knowledge area, it is not easy to learn the
technology without the Exercises (i.e. in the laboratory). However, due to the cooperation between
Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), many students from Kyungpook National University (KNU)
have arrived to Warsaw and perform their Senior Design Projects. I was honored to be a mentor of two
diploma students (Jayoung Hwang and Sung Wook Kim) which perform their research tasks in the
course of Bachelor Thesis. Their work concern fabrication of semiconductor devices and
characterization. I observed that those Students had a very fine, interesting time at ‘clean-room’ and they
appreciate such form of work. So, I think, that after my course, many Students could come to Warsaw
with better understanding of the knowledge area and perform research aiming at Bachelor, Master and
even PhD degree. We could expand the cooperation between our Universities and start deeper
cooperation towards e.g. joint research projects in semiconductor devices area.
ASSESSMENT METHODS
I plan to perform 3 evaluation tests after some part of lecture material. During one test, Students would
have an approval to use their notes from the lecture since it will be a very ‘specific’ exam. Sometimes,
during the lecture, I also perform random short questions for ‘extra’ points.
CLASS TOPICS (each class is 3 hrs)
1. Introduction (3h)
a. Semiconductor „World”
b. A little bit of a History…
c. The progress of Integrated Circuits technology
d. “The purity is of the most importance…”
e. Fabrication process scheme – the most important technology processes
2. Clean-rooms and Semiconductor Facility (3h)
3. Fabrication of technological layers
a. thermal oxidation and annealing, RTP (4h)
b. chemical vapor deposition processes (CVD) (3h)
c. physical vapor deposition processes (PVD) (3h)
d. ALD, MOCVD, MBE (2h)
4. Evaluation test 1 (2h)
5. Photolithography (3h)
a. “classical” optical lithography
b. Electronolithography
6. Etching processes (3h)
a. Chemical “wet” methods
b. Physical “dry” methods
7. Doping (3h)
a. Thermal diffusion
b. Ion implantation
c. Plasma implantation
8. Copper metallization and damascene technology (1h)
9. Examples of semiconductor devices fabrication scheme (2h)
10. Evaluation test 2 (2h)
11. Emerging devices, materials, concepts and future challenges
a. SiO2 <-> high-k dielectrics (2h)
b. Silicon-On-Insulator technology (SOI) (3h)
c. Silicon carbide (SiC) (1h)
d. Memory devices (1h)
e. Thin-Film Transistors (1h)
f. Graphene and other emerging materials (1h)
g. Photonic and optoelectronic devices (1h)
12. Evaluation test 3 (1h)
SPECIAL COMMENTS