半导体制造原理.docVIP

The process flow for semiconductor manufacturing is best considered in two sections, the front-end and the back-end The front-end is wafer processing which is performed in a Wafer Fab area. The process of wafer fabrication is a series of 16-24 loops, each putting down a layer on the device. Each loop comprises some or all of the major steps of photolithography, etch, strip, diffusion, ion implantation, deposition, and chemical mechanical planarization. At each stage, there are various inspections and measurements performed to monitor the process and equipment. Supporting the entire process is a complex infrastructure of materials supply, waste treatment, support, logistics,and automation. It has the cleanest environment in the world - many times cleaner than the best hospital operating theater. A Fab is one of the most complex industrial facilities to be found anywhere. A state-of-the-art Fab, costing over $1 billion, has a denser capital per square foot than any industry. The back-end is Test, Assembly and Packaging, where the finished wafer is split up into individual die (chips) which are then assembled into packages which can be handled in the final applications. Full functional electrical test is performed at both wafer and package level to ensure outgoing quality. The wafer growing process is similar to crystal growing experiments that most of us did at school. A seed crystal of silicon is immersed in a bath of molten silicon. It is slowly pulled out, and because crystal growth occurs uniformly in all directions, the cross section is circular and, as it is pulled, it forms a cylindrical ingot of pure silicon. The ingot pulling process lasts for almost 24 hours and produces a cylinder of diameter larger than is desired. The ingot is ground down to the required diameter, and then is sliced into individual wafers. At this stage, the wafers have a rough texture and need to be finely polished to meet the surface flatness and thickness specifications. To give yo