1.

Photolithographic Process Steps

1. Photoresist Application (Spinning)
A drop of light-sensitive liquid called photoresist is applied to the centre of the oxidized silicon wafer that is
held down by a vacuum chuck. The wafer is then accelerated rapidly to a rotational velocity in the range 3000
to 7000 RPM for some 30 to 60 seconds. This action spreads the solution in a thin, nearly uniform coat and
spins off the excess liquid. The thickness of the coat so obtained is in the range 5000 to 10000 A, as shown in
the figure below. The thickness of the photoresist layer will be approximately inversely proportional to the
square root of the rotational velocity.

2.Prebake
The silicon wafers coated with photoresist are now put into an oven at about 80C for about 30 to 60 minutes
to drive off solvents in the photoresist and to harden it into a semisolid film.
3. Alignment and Exposure
The coated wafer, as above, is now placed in an apparatus called a mask aligner in very close proximity (about
25 to 125 micro meters) to a photomask. The relative positions of the wafer and the photomasks are adjusted
such that the photomask is correctly lined up with reference marks or a pre-existing pattern on the wafer.
4. Development
Two types of photoresist exist- negative photoresist and positive photoresist. In the present description
negative photoresist is used in which the areas of the photoresist that are exposed the ultraviolet radiation
become polymerized. The polymerization process increases the length of the organic chain molecules that
make up the photoresist.
An opposite type of process occurs with positive photoresist. Exposure to UV radiation results in
depolymerization of the photoresist. This makes these exposed areas of the photoresist readily soluble in the
developer solution, whereas the unexposed areas are essentially insoluble. The developer solution will thus
remove the exposed or depolymerized regions of the photoresist, whereas the unexposed areas will remain on
the wafer. Thus again there is a replication of the photomask pattern, but this time the clear areas of the
photomask produce the areas on the wafer from which the photoresist has been removed.
5. Postbake
After development and rinsing the wafers are usually given a postbake in an oven at a temperature of about
150C for about 30 to 60 minutes to toughen further the remaining resist on the wafer. This is to make it adhere
better to the wafer and to make it more resistant to the hydrofluoric acid [HF] solution used for etching of the
silicon dioxide.

6. Oxide Etching
The remaining resist is hardened and acts as a convenient mask through which the oxide layer can be etched
away to expose areas of semiconductor underneath. These exposed areas are ready for impurity diffusion.
The above oxide etching process is termed wet etching process since the chemical reagents used are in liquid
form. A newer process for oxide etching is a dry etching process called plasma etching. Another dry etching
process is ion milling.
7. Photoresist Stripping
Following oxide etching, the remaining resist is finally removed or stripped off with a mixture of sulphuric
acid and hydrogen peroxide and with the help of abrasion process. Finally a step of washing and drying
completes the required window in the oxide layer. The figure below shows the silicon wafer ready for next
diffusion.

Photolithographic Process Steps

Negative photoresists, as above, are more difficult to remove. Positive photoresists can usually be easily
removed in organic solvents such as acetone.
In IC fabrication a number of masks are employed. Except for the first mask, every mask must be aligned to
the pattern produced by the previous mask. This is done using mask aligner. The mask aligner may be contact
type or proximity type or projection type. Accordingly we have three types of printing. They are

Contact printing
Proximity printing

Projection printing

Proximity Printing
In proximity or shadow printing, there exists a gap between mask and wafer in the range of 20 to 50
micro meters. This has the advantage of longer mask life because there is no contact between the mask
and the wafer. In the proximity printing, the mask and wafer are both placed in an equipment called a
projection aligner. Looking through a microscope, an operator brings the mask into close proximity [say
10 to 20 micro meters] to the wafer and properly aligns the wafer and mask using alignment mark on the
mask and the wafer. UV light is then projected through the mask on to the entire resist coated wafer at
one time. This mask that is used is a full wafer x 1 mask. The resolution of this process is a function of
the wavelength of the light source and the distance between the mask and the wafer. Typically, the
resolution of proximity printing is 2 to 4 micro meter and is therefore not suitable for a process requiring
less than a 2 um minimum line width.

Projection Printing
in this case the image is actually projected with the help of a system of lenses, onto the wafer. The mask can be
used a large number of times, substantially reducing the mask cost per wafer. Theoretically a mask can be used
an unlimited-number of times, but actual usage is limited to about 100,000 times because the mask must be
cleaned due to dust accumulation, and it is scratched at each cleaning. This is costliest of the conventional
systems, however mask life is good, and resolution obtained is higher than proximity printing together with
large separation between mask and wafer.

2. Metallization Process
Metallization is the final step in the wafer processing sequence. Metallization is the process by which the
components of ICs are interconnected by aluminum conductor. This process produces a thin-film metal layer
that will serve as the required conductor pattern for the interconnection of the various components on the chip.
Another use of metallization is to produce metalized areas called bonding pads around the periphery of the
chip to produce metalized areas for the bonding of wire leads from the package to the chip. The bonding wires
are typically 25 micro meters diameter gold wires, and the bonding pads are usually made to be around
100100 micro meters square to accommodate fully the flattened ends of the bonding wires and to allow for
some registration errors in the placement of the wires on the pads.
Aluminum (Al) is the most commonly used material for the metallization of most ICs, discrete diodes, and
transistors. The film thickness is as about 1 micro meters and conductor widths of about 2 to 25 micro meters
are commonly used. The use of aluminium offers the following advantages:

It has as relatively good conductivity.

It is easy to deposit thin films of Al by vacuum evaporation.

It has good adherence to the silicon dioxide surface.

Aluminum forms good mechanical bonds with silicon by sintering at about 500C or by alloying at the

eutectic temperature of 577C.

Aluminum forms low-resistance, non-rectifying (that is, ohmic) contacts with p-type silicon and with

heavily doped n-type silicon.

It can be applied and patterned with a single deposition and etching process.

In general the desired properties of the metallization for IC can be listed as follows.
Low resistivity.
Easy to form.
Easy to etch for pattern generation.
Should be stable in oxidizing ambient , oxidizable.
Mechanical stability; good adherence, low stress.
Surface smoothness.
Stability throughout processing including high temperature sinter, dry or wet oxidation, gettering,
phosphorous glass (or any other material) passivation, metallization.
No reaction with final metal, aluminum.
Should not contaminate device, wafers, or working apparatus.
Good device characteristics and life times.
For window contacts-low contact resistance, minimum junction penetration, low electro migration.

For VLSI, metallization applications can be divided into three groups:

1.Gates for MOSFET 2.Contacts, 3.Interconnects.
Metallisation process can be classified info two types:
1.
2.

CVD and
Physical Vapour Deposition

3 . Czochralski Crystal Growth Process

start growing a "Czochralski crystal" by filling a suitable crucible with the material - here hyperpure
correctly doped Si pieces obtained by crushing the poly-Si from the Siemens process. Take care to keep
impurities out - do it in a clean room - and use hyperpure silica for your crucible.

Make sure that the inside of the machine is very clean too and that the gas flow - the gas
you introduce but also the SiO coming from the molten Si because parts of the crucible
dissolve - does not interfere with the growing crystal.

Dissolve the Si in the crucible and keep its temperature close to the melting point. Since
you cannot avoid temperature gradients in the crucible, there will be some convection in
the liquid Si. You may want to suppress this by big magnetic fields.
Insert your seed crystal, adjust the temperature to "just right", and start withdrawing the
seed crystal. For homogeneity, rotate the seed crystal and the crucible. Rotation
directions and speeds and their development during growth, are closely guarded secrets!
First pull rather fast - the diameter of the growing crystal will decrease to a few mm. This
is the "Dash process" ensuring that the crystal will be dislocation free even though the
seed crystal may contain dislocations.
Now decrease the growth rate - the crystal diameter will increase - until you have the
desired diameter and commence to grow the commercial part of your crystal at a few
mm/second

As your crystal grows, the impurity concentration (including the dopants if you do not watch out)
will increase in the melt (due to segregation) and therefore also the percentage incorporated into
the crystal. The temperature profile of the whole system will also change - you are now deeper
down in the crucible and the crystal cools off a little more slowly. All these factor influence the
homogeneity of the crystal.

The radial and lateral doping level is influenced - it will not stay constant without some
special measures
The concentration of impurities, especially interstitial oxygen, may change. In general,
the concentration increases from "head" to "tail".
Crystal lattice defects still present (essentially agglomerates of the point defects present
in thermal equilibrium at high temperatures) may change in size and distribution.

want a crystal where all this factors are constant - everywhere!

So you must do something - change the rotation speeds, the temperature, the growth
speed - whatever.
This is where crystal growing becomes an art - and you will not find much literature
about this. This is the tricky and secret part: Changing all important parameters
continuously so that the crystal is homogeneous!

Now the crystal is nearly finished. You do not want to use up all the Si, because the "last drop"
contains all the impurities not yet incorporated because of their small segregation coefficients.

But you cannot simply pull out the crystal after the desired length has been reached. The
thermal shock of the rapidly cooling end would introduce large temperature gradients in
the crystal which in turn produce stress gradient - plastic deformation (easy in Si at high
temperatures) will take place and this means dislocation are nucleated and driven into the
crystal.
The dislocation will even run up into the formerly dislocation free part of the crystal,
destroying your precious Silicon.
So you withdraw gradually by just increasing the pulling rate a little bit which will lead to
a reduced diameter. The crystal then ends in an "end cone" similar to the "seed con

4. minimum ISO clean room classification required

A cleanroom or clean room is an environment, typically used in manufacturing or scientific
research,
with
a
low
level
of
environmentalpollutants such
as
dust,
airborne microbes, aerosol particles, and chemical vapors. More accurately, a cleanroom has
a controlled level of contamination that is specified by the number of particles per cubic meter at
a specified particle size. To give perspective, the ambient air outside in a typical urban
environment contains 35,000,000 particles per cubic meter in the size range 0.5 m and larger in
diameter, corresponding to an ISO 9 cleanroom, while an ISO 1 cleanroom allows no particles in
that size range and only 12 particles per cubic meter of 0.3 m and smaller. In the pharmaceutical
industry, clean rooms play a crucial role in the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products which
are required to be free from microbial and particulate contamination and protected from
moisture. Such pharmaceutical products are manufactured and manipulated in cleanrooms, which
are fitted with HEPA and, if required, ULPA filters as well as dehumidifier systems

ISO 14644-1 cleanroom standards

Class

FED STD 209E

maximum particles/m3

0.1 m

0.2 m

0.3 m

0.5 m

equivalent

1 m

5 m

ISO 1

10

2.37

1.02

0.35

0.083

0.0029

ISO 2

100

23.7

10.2

3.5

0.83

0.029

ISO 3

1,000

237

102

35

8.3

0.29

Class 1

ISO 4

10,000

2,370

1,020

352

83

2.9

Class 10

ISO 5

100,000

23,700

10,200

3,520

832

29

Class 100

ISO 6

1.0106

237,000

102,000

35,200

8,320

293

Class 1,000

ISO 7

1.0107

2.37106

1,020,000

352,000

83,200

2,930

Class 10,000

ISO 8

1.0108

2.37107

1.02107

3,520,000

832,000

29,300

Class 100,000

ISO 9

1.0109

2.37108

1.02108

35,200,000

8,320,000

293,000

Room air