Introduction to

Microelectronic Fabrication
by
Richard C. Jaeger
Distinguished University Professor
ECE Department

Auburn University

Chapter 3
Thermal Oxidation
of Silicon
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 Thermal Oxidation of Silicon
• Silicon Dioxide Dry Oxidation
High quality electrical insulator
Diffusion/implantation barrier Si  O2  SSiO
Si iO22
Passivates silicon surface
Wet Oxidation

Si  2H 2O  SSiO
Si iO22  2H 2

Growth Occurs 54% above and

46% below original surface as
silicon is consumed

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
 Thermal Oxidation
Fick’s First Law of Diffusion
Particle flux J is proportional to the negative
of the gradient of the particle concentration

N
J  D D = diffusion coefficient
x

Particles move from a region of high

concentration to one of low concentration



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 Thermal Oxidation
Fick’s First Law of Diffusion

 E 
D  DO exp A  Arrhenius Relationship
 kT 

E A  activation energy
k = Boltzmann' s constant = 1.38 x10 -23 J/K
T = absolute temperature



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 Thermal Oxidation
Oxidation Theory
N x,t  N  N 0 
J  D  D i
x XO
J X o   k sN i

X o2 Xo X i2 Xi
t    
B B A B B A

2D 2DN 0
A B
ks M

 B 0.5 
X o t   0.5A1 4 2 t    1
 A  
X o  final oxide thickness D = diffusion coefficient
Oxide growth occurs at Xo X i  initial oxide thickness N = concentration of oxygen

 = time required to grow initial oxide k s  rate constant at Si  SiO2interface


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 Oxidation Theory
Parabolic Regime
A2
For Long Times - t    
4B

X o t   Bt

B  parabolic rate constant

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 Oxidation Theory
Linear Regime
A2
For Short Times - t    
4B

B 
X o t    t   
A 

B 
 = linear rate constant
A 



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 Rate Constants
Wet and Dry Oxidation

• Wet oxidation is much more rapid than dry oxidation

• Note that dry oxidation appears to always have some initial oxide
present
• Dry oxidation (slow) produces higher quality oxide than wet oxidation

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 Thermal Oxidation
Oxidation on <100> Silicon

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 Thermal Oxidation
Oxidation on <111> Silicon

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 Thermal Oxidation Example

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 Thermal Oxidation Example
A <100> silicon wafer has a 2000-Å oxide on its surface

(a) How long did it take to grow this oxide at 1100o C in

dry oxygen?

(b)The wafer is put back in the furnace in wet oxygen at

1000o C. How long will it take to grow an additional 3000
Å of oxide?

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 Thermal Oxidation Example
Graphical Solution

(a) According to Fig. 3.6, it would take

2.8 hr to grow 0.2 mm oxide in dry
oxygen at 1100o C.
(b) The total oxide thickness at the end
of the oxidation would be 0.5 mm
which would require 1.5 hr to grow
if there was no oxide on the surface
to begin with. However, the wafer
“thinks” it has already been in the
furnace 0.4 hr. Thus the additional
time needed to grow the 0.3 mm
oxide is 1.5-0.4 = 1.1 hr.

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 Thermal Oxidation Example
Mathematical Solution
(a) From Table 3.1,
2 1.23m 2 B 2.00 m
B = 7.72x10 exp   3.71x10 6 exp  X i  25nm
 kT  hr A  kT  hr
m 2 B m
For T = 1373
1273 K, B = 0.0236 and  0.169
hr A hr
2


0.025m

0.025m
 0.174 hr
m 2
m
0.0236 0.169
hr hr
2

t=
0.2m

0.2m
 0.174hr  2.70 hr
m 2 0.169 m
0.0236
hr hr


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 Thermal Oxidation Example
Mathematical Solution
(b) From Table 3.1,
2 0.78 m 2 B 2.05 m
B = 3.86x10 exp   9.70x10 7 exp  Xi  0
 kT  hr A  kT  hr
m 2 B m
For T = 1273 K, B = 0.314 and  0.742
hr A hr
2


0.2m

0.2m
 0.398 hr
m 2 0.742 m
0.314
hr hr
2

t=
0.5m

0.5m
 0.398hr  1.07 hr
m 2 0.742 m
0.314
hr hr

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 Thermal Oxidation
Wet High Pressure Oxidation

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 Thermal Oxidation
Impurity Redistribution

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 Thermal Oxidation
Masking Properties of SiO2

• Required oxide thickness

depends upon dopant species
and temperature
• Hydrogen greatly enhances
diffusion of boron - wet
oxidation release hydrogen

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 Thermal Oxidation
Oxide Quality
• Dry oxidation (slow) produces higher quality oxide than
wet oxidation
• Oxidations often consist of sequence of dry-wet-dry
oxidation cycles -Most of oxide is grown during wet phase
• Dry phase yields higher density oxide with improved
breakdown voltage (5-10 MV/cm)
• Dry oxidation usually used to grow gate oxides
• Nitrogen being added to form oxynitrides for very thin
gate oxides

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 Thermal Oxidation
Oxidation Systems

(a)

Figure 3.11 Furnaces used for oxidation and diffusion

(a) A three-tube horizontal furnace with multizone
temperature control (b)
(b) Vertical furnace (Courtesy of Crystec, Inc.)

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 Local Oxidation of Silicon
(LOCOS)
• Isolation technology in
MOS processes

• Provides isolation
between nearby
devices

• Fully recessed process

attempts to minimize
bird’s beak

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 Thermal Oxidation
Deep Trench Isolation

• Often used in dynamic

memory chips (DRAMS)

• Deep trenches used in

high performance bipolar
processes

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 Thermal Oxidation
Example of Deep Trenches

Filled Trenches

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 Thermal Oxidation
Shallow Trench Isolation

Used for isolation

between devices and
to minimize device
capacitance

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 Chemical Mechanical
Polishing (CMP)

• Mechanical polishing is widely

used to achieve highly planar
surfaces

• Used in multilevel metalization

systems including both aluminum
and copper

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 Thermal Oxidation
Trench Isolation Example
Shallow trench isolation

CMP planarization

Deep trench isolation

Figure 3.14 Microphotograph of actual deep and

shallow trench isolation applied to SiGE HBT
technology. Copyright 1998 IEEE. Reprinted with
permission from Ref. [31].

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 Multilevel Metallization
Using CMP
6
5
4
3
2
Tungsten
1

Figure 3.16 Multilevel metallization fabricated with chemical mechanical polishing

(a) SEM of 6-level thin-wire copper. First-level copper is connected with tungsten studs to
tungsten local interconnect. (b) SEM of 6-level copper with low RC metallization on levels
5 and 6. Copyright 1997 IEEE. Reprinted with permission from Ref. [24].

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 Oxide Thickness
Determination
• Oxide Color Chart
Oxide thickness for constructive interference

k
2X o 
n

n  index of refraction (1.46 for SiO 2 )

• Oxide Color Chart k  1, 2, 3, ...


• Ellipsometer - direct measurement

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 Process Simulation
SUPREM Oxidation Example
SUPREM
Stanford University Process
Engineering Modeling Program
[25-27]

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 Thermal Oxidation
References

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