Today is the third day of my Industrial training and today we are to visit the chip
fabrication plant...
Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to create the integrated circuits that are present in everyday electrical and electronic devices. It is a multiple-step sequence of photo lithographic and chemical processing steps during which electronic circuits are gradually created on a wafer made of pure semiconducting material like Silicon.
In semiconductor device fabrication, the various processing steps fall into four general categories: deposition, removal, patterning, and modification of electrical properties.
Deposition is any process that grows, coats, or otherwise transfers a material onto the wafer. Available technologies include physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, electrochemical deposition, molecular beam epitaxy and more recently, atomic layer deposition among others. The logic gates are deposited as sandwich layer.
Removal is any process that removes material from the wafer; examples include etch processes (either wet or dry) and chemical-mechanical planarization.
Patterning is the shaping or altering of deposited materials, and is generally referred to as lithography. In conventional lithography, the wafer is coated with a chemical called a photoresist; then, a machine called a stepper focuses, aligns, and moves a mask, exposing select portions of the wafer below to short wavelength light; the exposed regions are washed away by a developer solution. After etching or other processing, the remaining photoresist is removed by plasma ashing.
Modification of electrical properties has historically entailed doping transistor sources and drains (originally by diffusion furnaces and later by ion implantation). These doping processes are followed by furnace annealing or, in advanced devices, by rapid thermal annealing; annealing serves to activate the implanted dopants. Modification of electrical properties now also extends to the reduction of a material's dielectric constant in low-k insulators via exposure to ultraviolet light in UV processing.
Modern chips have up to eleven metal levels produced in over 300 sequenced processing steps.
Once the front-end process has been completed, the semiconductor devices are subjected to a variety of electrical tests to determine if the device functions properly
Once tested, a wafer is typically reduced in thickness before the wafer is scored and then broken into individual dies, a process known as wafer dicing.
Plastic or ceramic packaging involves mounting the die, connecting the die pads to the pins on the package, and sealing the die.
Soon it was time to leave and I had decided to take up my project work based upon the chip fabrication process. Indeed it was quite exciting and challenging. I learned how fast and computerized life has become thanks to wonderful chips...indeed they provide food for thought...
fabrication plant...
Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to create the integrated circuits that are present in everyday electrical and electronic devices. It is a multiple-step sequence of photo lithographic and chemical processing steps during which electronic circuits are gradually created on a wafer made of pure semiconducting material like Silicon.
In semiconductor device fabrication, the various processing steps fall into four general categories: deposition, removal, patterning, and modification of electrical properties.
Deposition is any process that grows, coats, or otherwise transfers a material onto the wafer. Available technologies include physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, electrochemical deposition, molecular beam epitaxy and more recently, atomic layer deposition among others. The logic gates are deposited as sandwich layer.
Removal is any process that removes material from the wafer; examples include etch processes (either wet or dry) and chemical-mechanical planarization.
Patterning is the shaping or altering of deposited materials, and is generally referred to as lithography. In conventional lithography, the wafer is coated with a chemical called a photoresist; then, a machine called a stepper focuses, aligns, and moves a mask, exposing select portions of the wafer below to short wavelength light; the exposed regions are washed away by a developer solution. After etching or other processing, the remaining photoresist is removed by plasma ashing.
Modification of electrical properties has historically entailed doping transistor sources and drains (originally by diffusion furnaces and later by ion implantation). These doping processes are followed by furnace annealing or, in advanced devices, by rapid thermal annealing; annealing serves to activate the implanted dopants. Modification of electrical properties now also extends to the reduction of a material's dielectric constant in low-k insulators via exposure to ultraviolet light in UV processing.
Modern chips have up to eleven metal levels produced in over 300 sequenced processing steps.
Once the front-end process has been completed, the semiconductor devices are subjected to a variety of electrical tests to determine if the device functions properly
Once tested, a wafer is typically reduced in thickness before the wafer is scored and then broken into individual dies, a process known as wafer dicing.
Plastic or ceramic packaging involves mounting the die, connecting the die pads to the pins on the package, and sealing the die.
Soon it was time to leave and I had decided to take up my project work based upon the chip fabrication process. Indeed it was quite exciting and challenging. I learned how fast and computerized life has become thanks to wonderful chips...indeed they provide food for thought...
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