MICROFABRICATION

YASH V. KANKAL
ROLL NO.-32
Definition:-
Microfabrication is the term that describes processes
of fabrication of miniature structures, of micrometre
sizes and smaller.

Historically the earliest microfabrication processes were

used for integrated circuit fabrication, also known as
"semiconductor device fabrication," "semiconductor
manufacturing,VLSI technology, microelectronic
fabrication".
Fields of use:-
Microfabricated devices include:-

Fabrication of integrated circuits

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS),
microfluidic devices
solar cells
Flat Panel Displays
Sensors (micro-sensors) (biosensors, nanosensors)
PowerMEMSs, fuel cells, energy harvesters/scavengers
Origins:-
Microfabrication technologies originate from the
microelectronics industry, and the devices are usually
made on silicon wafers even though glass, plastics and
many other substrate are in use .
Microfabrication Techniques :-
Microfabrication Processes:-
Microfabrication is actually a collection of technologies
which are utilized in making microdevices.

 Substrates
 Deposition or Growth
 Patterning
 Etching
 Micro cutting / microfabrication
 Cleanliness in wafer fabrication
1. Substrates:-
Microfabricated devices are not generally freestanding devices
but are usually formed over or in a thicker support substrate.

The substrate enables easy handling of the micro device

through the many fabrication steps.

For electronic applications, semiconducting substrates such

as silicon wafers can be used.

 For optical devices or flat panel displays, transparent

substrates such as glass or quartz are common.
2. Deposition or Growth:-
Microfabricated devices are typically constructed using one or
more thin films.

Deposition techniques include:

 Thermal oxidation
chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
APCVD
LPCVD
PECVD
Physical vapor deposition(PVD)
Sputter deposition
evaporative deposition
Electron beam PVD
[a].Thermal oxidation:-
In microfabrication, thermal oxidation is a way to
produce a thin layer of oxide (usually silicon dioxide) on the
surface of a wafer.

The technique forces an oxidizing agent to diffuse into the

wafer at high temperature and react with it.

Most thermal oxidation is performed in furnaces, at

temperatures between 800 and 1200°C.
Vertical furnaces stand higher than
horizontal furnaces, so they may not fit
into some microfabrication facilities.
However, they help to prevent dust
contamination.

Vertical furnaces also eliminate non-

uniformity of grown oxide across the
wafer.

Vertical furnaces have wafer sitting

horizontally, and then having the gas
flow in the furnace flowing from top to Furnaces used for diffusion and thermal
bottom. oxidation
[b]. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD):-
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a chemical process
used to produce high-purity, high-performance solid
materials.

 The process is often used in the semiconductor industry to

produce thin films.

In a typical CVD process, the wafer (substrate) is exposed to

one or more volatile precursors, which react and/or
decompose on the substrate surface to produce the desired
deposit.
Types of chemical vapor deposition
Atmospheric pressure CVD (APCVD) :- CVD processes at
atmospheric pressure.

 Low-pressure CVD (LPCVD) :-CVD processes at

subatmospheric pressures.
Reduced pressures tend to reduce unwanted gas-
phase reactions and improve film uniformity across the
wafer.

Plasma-Enhanced CVD (PECVD) :- CVD processes that

utilize plasma to enhance chemical reaction rates of the
precursors.
[c]. Physical vapor deposition (PVD) :-
Physical vapor deposition (PVD) is a variety of
vacuum deposition.

It is a general term used to describe methods to

deposit thin films by the condensation of a vaporized
form of the material onto various surfaces.
I.Sputter deposition :-
Sputter deposition is a
physical vapor deposition
(PVD) method of
depositing thin films by
sputtering, that is
ejecting, material from a
"target," that is source,
which then deposits onto
a "substrate," such as a
silicon wafer.
Resputtering is re-emission of the deposited material during
the deposition process by ion or atom bombardment.

Sputtered atoms ejected from the target have a wide energy

distribution.

The sputtered ions (typically only a small fraction — order 1%

— of the ejected particles are ionized) can ballistically fly from
the target in straight lines and impact energetically on the
substrates or vacuum chamber (causing resputtering).

The sputtering gas is often an inert gas such as argon.

II.Evaporation (deposition) :-

Evaporation machine used for metallization

Evaporation is a common method of thin film deposition.

The source material is evaporated in a vacuum.

The vacuum allows vapor particles to travel directly to the

target object (substrate), where they condense back to a
solid state.

 Evaporation involves two basic processes: a hot source

material evaporates and condenses on the substrate.
Evaporation takes place in a vacuum. In high vacuum (with
a long mean free path), evaporated particles can travel
directly to the deposition target without colliding with the
background gas.

Evaporated atoms that collide with foreign particles may

react with them; for instance, if aluminium is deposited in
the presence of oxygen, it will form aluminium oxide.

They also reduce the amount of vapor that reaches the

substrate, which makes the thickness difficult to control.

 Evaporated materials deposit nonuniformly if the

substrate has a rough surface.
III. Electron beam physical vapor deposition:-

Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition

Electron beam physical vapor deposition, however, yields a
high deposition rate from 0.1 μm / min to 100 μm / min at
relatively low substrate temperatures, with very high
material utilization efficiency.

 In an EBPVD system, the deposition chamber is evacuated

to a pressure

The material to be evaporated is in the form of ingots.

Electron beams can be generated by thermionic emission,

or the anodic arc method.
The generated electron beam is accelerated to a high
kinetic energy and focused towards the ingot.

85% of the kinetic energy of the electrons is converted into

thermal energy as the beam bombards the surface of the
ingot.

The surface temperature of the ingot increases resulting in

the formation of a liquid melt.

 The ingot itself is enclosed in a copper crucible, which is

cooled by water circulation.
3.Patterning :-
It is often desirable to pattern a film into distinct features
or to form openings (or vias) in some of the layers.

These features are on the micrometer or nanometer scale.

patterning techniques include :-

Photolithography
Photolithography :-
Photolithography is a process used in microfabrication to
selectively remove parts of a thin film or the bulk of a
substrate.

 It uses light to transfer a geometric pattern from a photo

mask to a light-sensitive chemical "photoresist", on the
substrate.

Photolithography is carried out in a sequence as given below

in tree-diagram -
 Photolithography
SiO 2

Clean wafer Substrate

Deposit barrier layer

PR
SiO2, Si3N4, metal SiO 2

Substrate

Coat with photoresist

Light

Soft bake
PR
SiO 2

Align masks Substrate

 PR
Expose pattern SiO 2

Substrate

Develop photoresist

PR
Hard bake SiO 2

Substrate

Etch windows in
barrier layer
SiO 2

Remove Substrate
photoresist
4. Etching :-
Etching is the removal of some portion of the thin film or
substrate .

The substrate is exposed to an etching which chemically or

physically attacks the film until it is removed.

Etching techniques include:

1. Dry etching (Plasma etching)
2. Wet etching or Chemical Etching
I. Dry etching (Plasma etching) :-
Plasma etching is a form of plasma processing used to
fabricate integrated circuits.

 It involves a high-speed stream of glow discharge (plasma)

of an appropriate gas mixture being shot at a sample.

 The plasma source, known as etch species, can be either

charged (ions) or neutral (atoms and radicals).
II. Wet etching :-
The wafer can be immersed in a bath of etchant,
which must be agitated to achieve good process
control.

Buffered hydrofluoric acid (BHF) is used commonly to

etch silicon dioxide over a silicon substrate.
5.Micro cutting / microfabrication :-

Micro cutting is an alternative to lithographic techniques,

by downscaling macro processes such as cutting and
forming, to tool sizes under 100 µm in diameter.
6.Cleanliness in wafer fabrication :-
Microfabrication is carried out in cleanrooms.

Where air has been filtered of particle contamination and

temperature, humidity, vibrations and electrical
disturbances.

Smoke, dust, bacteria and cells are micrometers in size,

and their presence will destroy the functionality of a
microfabricated device.
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