Diffusion

• To form devices like transistors, diodes, or

resistors, specific regions of the wafer must be
doped with specific amounts and types of
impurities.
 IMPURITY DOPING
• Two methods for introducing impurities into Si
to control the majority-carrier type and
resistivity of layers
- Diffusion
- Ion implantation
 NEED OF DOPING
• Formation of pn junction and fabrication of
devices during wafer fabrication.
• Alter the type and level of conductivity of
semiconductor materials.
• form bases, emitters in bipolar devices, as well
as drains and sources in MOS devices.
 Diffusion of Dopant Impurities
• Diffusion is the process by which substances move
down a concentration gradient, from an area of high
concentration to an area of low concentration
• The process of junction formation, i.e from transition
from p to n type or vice versa, is typically accomplished
by the process of diffusing the appropriate dopant
impurities in a high temperature furnace.
• Impurity atoms are introduced onto the surface of
silicon wafer and diffuse into the lattice because of
their tendency to move from regions of high to low
concentration.
• It takes place at typically 1000◦C to 1200◦C.
• The diffusion rate of impurities -1μm/hr.
• Penetration depth involved in most diffusion process
will be of the order of 0.3 to 3 μm.
• Two types of physical mechanisms by which
the impurities can diffuse
- Substitutional Diffusion
- Interstitial Diffusion
 Substitutional Diffusion
• At high temperature many atoms in the
semiconductor move out of their lattice site,
leaving vacancies into which impurity atoms
can move. The impurities, thus, move through
the lattice by exchanging places with an
adjacent vacancy.
• Substitutional diffusion takes place by
replacing the silicon atoms of parent crystal by
impurity atom.
• Substitutional diffusion is applicable to the most common
diffusants, such as boron, phosphorous and arsenic. These dopants
atoms are too big to fit into the interstices or voids. So the only way
they can enter the silicon crystal is to substitute for a silicon atom.
• An impurity atom to move to a neighbouring vacant site, has to
over-come energy barrier which is due to breaking of covalent
bonds.
• The probability of its having enough thermal energy to do this is
proportional to an exponential function of temperature.
• Also, whether it is able to move is also dependent on the availability
of a vacant neighbouring site, and since an adjacent site is vacated
by a silicon atom due to thermal fluctuation of the lattice, the
probability of such event is again an exponential function of
temperature.
 Interstitial Diffusion
• The impurity atom does not replace the silicon
atom, at regular lattice sites, but instead
moves into the interstitial voids in the three
dimensional lattice structure.
• The main type of impurities diffusing by such
mechanism are gold, copper and nickel.
• Gold is introduced into silicon to reduce carrier
lifetime and hence useful to increase speed of
digital ICs.
• The diffusion due to this process is very slow at
room temperature and it is practically acceptable
at 1000◦C.
• Long term device stability cannot be assured with
impurities diffusing interstitially.
• The diffusion rate due to interstitial movement is
much greater than for substitutional movement,
possible as they can fit in the voids between Si
atoms
• Diffusion requires two conditions:
- The density of impurity atoms as diffusants
must be non-uniform, with a source of
material at the surface.
- Thermal energy is required to enable the
atoms to migrate into the solid.
Fick’s laws governing Diffusion process
The diffusion rate of impurities into semiconductor
lattice depends on the following
• Mechanism of diffusion
• Temperature
• Physical properties of impurity.
• The properties of the lattice environment.
• The concentration gradient of impurities.
• Geometry of the parent semiconductor.
• Diffusion theory which will derive some of the
eqns which describes the diffusion.
• In 1855, Fick published his theory on diffusion
which is based on a analogy between material
transfer in a solution & heat transfer by
conduction
• Fick assumed that in a liquid or gaseous
solution, the transfer of solute atoms per unit
area in one dimensional flow is given by
 Fick’s laws – first law of diffusion
• Fick’s first law of diffusion states that the local
rate of transfer (local diffusion rate) of solute per
unit area per unit time is proportional to the
concentration gradient of the solute, and defines
the proportionality constant as the diffusion
constant of the solute.
• Expression given above…
• The negative sign appears due to opposite
direction of matter flow and concentration
gradient. Fick’s first law is applicable to dopant
impurities used in silicon.
• Based on the boundary conditions of Equation
4, gives rise to various dopant distributions,
called profiles
1. Constant source diffusion following
complementary error function (erfc)
2. Limited source diffusion following Gaussian
distribution function.
Diffusion profiles
 Constant source diffusion
• Wafer is exposed to an impurity source of
constant concentration during the diffusion
period
• The impurity concentration at the
semiconductor surface is maintained at a
constant level throughout the diffusion cycle
Limited source diffusion
Parameters which affect diffusion
profile
Basic properties of the diffusion
process
 Dopants & their characteristics
• Dopants selection affects IC characteristics
• Boron & Phosphorous are the basic dopants of most
ICs
• Arsenic & antimony highly soluble in Si & diffuse
slowly, used before epitaxial processing
• Gold & silver diffuse rapidly, act as recombination
centres & thus reduce carrier lifetime
• N-type impurities such as phosphorous, antimony &
arsenic can be used at different stages of IC processing
• Diffusion constant of P much greater than Sb & As
compared to Boron, which leads to economies
resulting from shorter diffusion time
• Boron exclusive choice as an acceptor impurity in
Si since other p-type impurity have limitations as
• Gallium has relatively large diffusion coefficient in
SiO2
• Indium – high ionization energy of 0.16 eV,
compared with 0.01 eV for boron, which indicates
not all such acceptors would be ionized at room
temp to produce a hole
• Al reacts strongly with any O2 that is present in
the Si lattice
• Common dopants in VLSI circuit fabrication
are Boron, Phosphorous & Arsenic
• Phosphorous useful as an emitter & base
dopant
• Arsenic – most frequently used dopant for
source & drain regions in n-channel MOSFETs
• Dopant source material may be solid, liquid or
gaseous
 Diffusion Systems
• The method of impurity delivery to wafer is determined
by the nature of impurity source
• A constant source diffusion is carried out for a short
time, at low temperature, 10000C .
• Two step diffusion – widely used, impurity concentration
& profiles can be carefully controlled
• 2 step diffusion – predeposition step & drive-in step
• The impurity supply is shutoff & existing dopant is
allowed to diffuse into the body of the semiconductor, at
12000C in an oxidizing atmosphere
• Oxide layer formed on the surface of wafer prevents
further impurities from entering or those already
deposited from diffusing out.
 Diffusion furnace
• A resistance heated tube furnace is used
• TF has a long hollow opening into which a quartz tube
is placed
• Si wafers to be processed are stacked up vertically into
slots in a quartz carrier or boat & inserted into the
furnace tube
• Temp of furnace – 10000C
• Temp within the quartz tube can be controlled very
accurately & maintained uniformly over a hot zone
about 1 m in length
• Achieved by 3 individually controlled adjacent
resistance elements
 Diffusion system

Diffusion furnace
 Diffusion of p type impurity
• Boron – acceptor impurity in Si
• Moderate diffusion coefficient , precisely
controlled diffusion
• Used for transistor base diffusions
 Boron limited source diffusion using
B2H6 (Diborane) Source
• Gaseous source for B, directly introduced into
the diffusion furnace.
• Nitrogen acts as relatively inert gas, carrier gas
to be a dilutent for other more reactive gases
• N2 carrier gas, make up some 90 to 99 percent
of gas flow
• Rest of gas flow – small amount of O2 & small
amount of source of boron
• Reaction occurring simultaneously at the surface of the
silicon wafers
• Si + O2  SiO2 (silica glass)
• 2B2H6 + 3O2 B2O3 (boron glass) + 6H2
• Process is CVD of a glass layer on Si surface which is a
mixture of silica glass & boron glass called borosilica glass
(BSG)
• Viscous liquid at diffusion temp & B atoms can move rapidly
• Constant source diffusion, called predeposition step in
which the dopant atoms deposit into the surface regions of
the Si wafers
• BSG protects the Si atoms from pitting or evaporating & act
as a getter for undesirable impurities into the Si
• Then drive in step – External dopant source is
removed such that no additional dopants
enter the Si
• The dopants already in the Si move further in
& are redistributed
• Junction depth increases, surface
concentration decreases
 B diffusion using BBr3 (Boron
Tribromide) source
• Liquid source of B
• Controlled flow of carrier gas (N2) is bubbled
through Boron Tribromide which with O2
produces B trioxide at the surface of the
wafers
• 4BBr3 + 3O2  2B2O3 + 6Br2
 Diffusion of n type impurity
• For P diffusion compounds as PH3 (phosphine) & POCl3
(phosphorous oxychloride) can be used
• Using POCl3 reactions at Si wafer surfaces,
• Si + O2  SiO2 (Silica glass)
• 4POCl3 + 3O2  2P2O5 (P glass)+ 6Cl2
• Production of glassy layer on Si wafers that is a mixture of P
glass & silica glass called phosphorosilica glass (PSG) ,
viscous liquid at diffusion temp
• The mobility of P atoms in the glassy layer & P
concentration at the Si surface will be maintained at the
solid solubility limit
• The rest of P diffusion same as B diffusion
• P2O5(P pentoxide) solid source for P impurity
& used in place of POCl3
• POCl3 advantage: easier source handling,
simple furnace requirements & better control
of impurity density
• Phosphine - gaseous source for P, but toxic &
explosive, needs some care in handling
• Other common n-type dopants are antimony
& arsenic
• Antimony preferred bcoz less toxic
• Arsenic higher solid solubility, can provide
bigger surface concentrations of dopants
 Interstitial dopants
• Gold diffuses into Si as an interstitial dopant
• Gold diffuses very rapidly, takes place at
relatively reduced temp
• Gold diffusion is required in digital ICs, which
should operate at high speed, increase the
switching speed
 Characterization of diffused layers
• The diffused layers are characterized by 2
principal parameters: sheet resistance Rs &
junction depth
• The sheet resistance of thin layers including
diffused layers can be measured using a four-
point probe apparatus.
• A fixed measured current typically 1mA is passed
between the two outer probes & the voltage V is
measured using a high impedance voltmeter
between the 2 inner probes.
• Sheet resistance is given by :