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Diffussion 22

Diffusion is the movement of atoms from an area of high concentration to low concentration. It is an important process in silicon integrated circuit manufacturing, allowing the type of conductivity in silicon to be altered. There are several mechanisms of diffusion, including vacancy, interstitial, and interstitialcy diffusion. Wafers are placed in a high-temperature furnace through which a dopant gas flows, causing dopant atoms to diffuse into the semiconductor material. Common n-type and p-type dopants for silicon diffusion are arsenic/phosphorus and boron, respectively.

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35 views16 pages

Diffussion 22

Diffusion is the movement of atoms from an area of high concentration to low concentration. It is an important process in silicon integrated circuit manufacturing, allowing the type of conductivity in silicon to be altered. There are several mechanisms of diffusion, including vacancy, interstitial, and interstitialcy diffusion. Wafers are placed in a high-temperature furnace through which a dopant gas flows, causing dopant atoms to diffuse into the semiconductor material. Common n-type and p-type dopants for silicon diffusion are arsenic/phosphorus and boron, respectively.

Uploaded by

Malavika R Nair
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© © All Rights Reserved
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DIFFUSION

Diffusion techniques
Diffusion is the movement of atoms from an area
of high concentration to an area of low
concentration.

Fig. 1. Beakers of water before and after diffusion.


Diffusion of impurity atoms in silicon is
important in silicon integrated circuit
processing.
The idea of using diffusion techniques to
alter the type of conductivity in silicon was
disclosed in a patent by Pfann in 1952.
Diffusion is used to form bases and emitters
in bipolar device technology, to form source
and drain regions, and to dope polysilicon in
MOS device technology.
Atomic mechanisms of diffusion
Impurity atoms may occupy either substitutional
(i.e., replacing a host silicon atom) or interstitial
(i.e., between silicon atoms ) site in the crystal
lattice.
Impurity atoms utilized as dopants(P,B,As)
occupy substitutional positions where the dopant
atoms can contribute free electrons or holes to the
silicon lattice.
Impurity atom diffusion may be vacancy,
interstitial or a combination mechanism known as
interstitialcy.
Vacancy diffusion occurs when a substitutional
atom exchanges lattice positions with a vacancy –
requires the presence of a vacancy.
Interstitial diffusion occurs when an interstitial atom
jumps to another interstitial position.
Interstitialcy diffusion results from silicon self-
interstitials displacing substitutional impurities to a
interstitial site - requires the presence of silicon self-
interstitials, the impurity interstitial may then knock a
silicon lattice atom into a self-interstitial position.
Vacancy diffusion
To jump from lattice site to lattice site, atoms need
energy to break bonds with neighbors, and to cause
the necessary lattice distortions during jump.
Therefore, there is an energy barrier.
Energy comes from thermal energy of atomic
vibrations (Eav ~ kT)
Atom flow is opposite to vacancy flow direction.
Interstitial diffusion
Generally faster than vacancy diffusion because
bonding of interstitials to surrounding atoms is
normally weaker and there are more interstitial
sites than vacancy sites to jump to.
Smaller energy barrier
Only small impurity atoms (e.g. C, H, O) fit into
interstitial sites.
Basic Diffusion Process
Semiconductor wafers are placed in a carefully
controlled, high temperature quartz-tube furnace
and a gas mixture that contains the desired dopant
is passed through.
Temperature ranges between 800oC and 1200oC for
silicon
The number of dopant atoms that diffuse into the
semiconductors is related to the partial pressure of
the dopant impurity in the gas mixture
Popular dopants
For diffusion in silicon,
 boron is the p-type impurity;
arsenic and phosphorous is the n-type
impurity
These three elements are highly soluble in
silicon (The number density of silicon is 5 x 1022 atoms/cm-
3
, Typical impurity concentration is 1017 atoms/cm-3 for
active device region)
Basic concepts
Impurity profile- the concentration of an impurity
versus depth into the silicon.
Background concentration- an impurity
concentration existing in the silicon that an impurity
profile is formed into.
Junction depth- the depth at which the impurity
profile concentration is equal to the background
concentration.
Dopants are introduced in several ways
Solid sources(Eg. BN for boron, As2O3for
Arsenic, P2O5 for phosphorous). Disks of BN, ,
4

etc., placed between wafers in the carrier


Liquid sources(BBr3, AsCl3 and POCl3) with N2
bubbler (most common)
Gaseous sources(B2H6, AsH3 and PH3)
Furnace and gas flow arrangement for a liquid source
An example of the chemical reaction for
phosphorous diffusion using a liquid source

• The P2O5 forms a glass-on-silicon wafer and is


then reduced to phosphorous by silicon

• The phosphorous released diffuses into the


silicon, and Cl2 is vented.

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