Chip Manufacturing - How are Microchips made? | Infineon
Summary
TLDRThis script outlines the intricate process of semiconductor manufacturing, starting from raw sand to finished chips. It details the transformation of silicon dioxide into pure silicon ingots, followed by slicing into wafers. The semiconductor nature of silicon is harnessed through doping to create P and N-type layers, essential for transistor construction. The script further explains the fabrication process involving photolithography, oxidation, etching, and metallization, all conducted in a cleanroom to ensure precision. The final steps include assembly and packaging, highlighting the importance of quality control for producing reliable semiconductor devices.
Takeaways
- 🏗️ Sand, primarily composed of silicon dioxide, is the starting material for semiconductor chips.
- 🔥 A high-temperature process involving carbon is used to remove oxygen from silica sand, creating pure silicon.
- 🔬 Silicon is a semiconductor material that can conduct electricity and act as an insulator.
- 🔋 Doping with impurities like boron or phosphorus alters silicon's conductivity to create n-type or p-type semiconductors.
- 🔩 Transistors, built on doped silicon layers, control electric voltages and currents and are crucial for microchips.
- 🛠️ The chip fabrication process requires a cleanroom environment to prevent contamination.
- 📏 Photo masks are used to transfer circuit designs onto silicon wafers through a process involving light exposure and etching.
- 🔍 Scanning electron microscopes are utilized to ensure the quality and precision of the chips at various production stages.
- 🔗 The final stage of fabrication involves assembling the individual chips into packages with terminals for circuit board mounting.
- 🌐 Microelectronics are integral to modern life, enabling innovations that improve safety, efficiency, and accessibility of technology.
Q & A
What is the primary component of sand used in chip manufacturing?
-The primary component of sand used in chip manufacturing is silicon dioxide or silica.
How is silicon extracted from sand in the chip-making process?
-Silicon is extracted from sand by combining it with carbon and heating it to an extremely high temperature to remove the oxygen.
What is the term for the extremely pure mono crystalline silicon used in chip manufacturing?
-The extremely pure mono crystalline silicon used in chip manufacturing is called a silicon bull or ingot.
What are the most common diameters for silicon wafers?
-The most common diameters for silicon wafers are 150, 200, and 300 millimeters.
Why are large diameter wafers preferred in chip manufacturing?
-Large diameter wafers are preferred because they offer more space for chips, which can increase production efficiency.
What is the role of doping in the silicon wafer process?
-Doping is the process of adding small quantities of specific atoms to the silicon wafer to make it conductive. Elements from the thirteenth or fifteenth group of the periodic table are used for this purpose.
What are the two types of conductive layers created by doping?
-The two types of conductive layers created by doping are n-type, which is conductive with the addition of phosphorus, and p-type, which is conductive with the addition of boron.
What is a transistor and how does it function?
-A transistor is the smallest control unit in microchips that controls electric voltages and currents. It can be switched between current flow (on) and no flow (off) by applying electrical charges to its terminals.
How are the layers for transistors created on a wafer?
-The layers for transistors are created through a series of steps including oxidation, photoresist application, exposure through photo masks, etching, and doping.
What is a cleanroom and why is it necessary for chip fabrication?
-A cleanroom is a dust-free environment with stable temperature and humidity levels, necessary for chip fabrication to prevent contamination that can ruin the microscopic structures of chips.
What happens during the final stage of chip fabrication known as assembly?
-During the final stage of chip fabrication, individual chips are placed in a package, and terminals are attached to create a finished semiconductor device ready for use.
How are power semiconductors different from standard semiconductors?
-Power semiconductors are designed to switch high electrical currents and voltages, and they often have integrated cooling areas to dissipate the heat generated during operation.
Outlines
💿 Silicon Wafer Production
This paragraph discusses the process of transforming raw silica sand into silicon wafers, which are the foundational elements for chip production. Silicon, the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust, is refined from sand through a series of complex chemical and physical procedures. The process involves combining sand with carbon and heating it to extreme temperatures to remove oxygen, resulting in pure mono crystalline silicon known as a silicon bull. These silicon bulls are then cut into thin wafers using a special sawing technique. The wafers are essential for subsequent chip production and are made conductive through the addition of impurity atoms like boron or phosphorus, a process known as doping. This doping process allows the silicon to either have an excess of electrons (n-type) or create electron holes (p-type), which are necessary for the semiconductor properties of chips.
🛠️ Fabrication of Integrated Circuits
The second paragraph delves into the intricate process of creating integrated circuits on silicon wafers. It starts with the design phase, where the chip's functions are defined, its properties are simulated, and its functionality is tested. The design is then transferred to photo masks, which are used to reproduce the microscopic structures of the chip in a dust-free environment known as a cleanroom. The fabrication process includes oxidizing the wafer surface, applying photoresist, exposing it to light through the photo mask, developing the exposed areas, etching off the developed oxide layer, and depositing conductive polysilicon. Further steps involve doping the silicon to alter its conductivity, etching contact holes for interconnections, and depositing metal alloys to create contacts. The process may be repeated multiple times to build up the layers necessary for the integrated circuit. The paragraph also emphasizes the stringent cleanliness and precision required in the production environment to ensure the quality of the chips.
🔩 Assembly and Quality Control of Semiconductor Devices
The final paragraph outlines the assembly and quality control stages of semiconductor production. After the integrated circuit is complete, individual chips are separated from the wafer, which involves leaving scribe lines and integrating test structures for immediate post-production measurements. The size of the resulting chips can vary significantly. The chips are then assembled into packages with terminals, creating finished semiconductor devices that can be mounted on circuit boards. The paragraph also highlights the use of special packages for power semiconductors designed for high-current applications like electric vehicles and renewable energy systems. The importance of advanced testing technologies and precision equipment in ensuring the quality and functionality of these tiny components is emphasized, as they are critical to the performance and reliability of the devices they are used in.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Silicon Dioxide
💡Mono Crystalline Silicon
💡Doping
💡Transistors
💡Photoresist
💡Cleanroom
💡Ion Implantation
💡Wafer
💡Scribing Line
💡Semiconductor Device
💡Infineon
Highlights
Sand, primarily composed of silicon dioxide, is the starting material for chips.
Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust.
Complex chemical and physical processes are required to purify silicon for chip production.
Silicon is converted from silica sand by combining it with carbon and heating.
Extremely pure mono crystalline silicon ingots, called bulls, are used in chip production.
Silicon wafers are cut from silicon bulls using a special sawing technique.
Silicon is a semiconductor, capable of conducting electricity and acting as an insulator.
Doping with impurity atoms like boron and phosphorus alters silicon's conductivity.
Transistors, built on doped wafers, are the fundamental control units in microchips.
Transistors control electric voltages and currents, crucial for electronic circuits.
The chip fabrication process begins with layout and design, involving billions of transistors.
Photo masks are used to transfer circuit designs onto silicon wafers.
Cleanrooms with stringent standards are essential for chip fabrication.
Wafers undergo multiple steps including oxidation, photoresist application, and etching.
Doping introduces impurity atoms to change the silicon's conductivity.
Metal alloys are deposited to create contacts and interconnections within the wafer.
Chemical mechanical polishing ensures a smooth finish for the insulation layer.
Final fabrication stages include assembly and packaging of individual chips.
Quality control is maintained through testing at every step of the fabrication process.
Microelectronics play a key role in creating innovative semiconductor solutions for a better future.
Transcripts
you
all ships start out with a very simple
raw material sand sand is primarily made
up of silicon dioxide or silica silicon
is the second most abundant element in
the Earth's crust but is only ever found
as a compound with oxygen complex
chemical and physical processes are
required to ensure that silicon crystals
meets the high production standards that
apply to chips to convert silica sand to
silicon the sand is combined with carbon
and heated to an extremely high
temperature to remove the oxygen a
number of other steps are required to
create the finished product namely an
extremely pure mono crystalline silicon
ingot called a bull with only one
impurity atom for every 10 million
silicon atoms silicon bulls are
fabricated in a range of different
diameters the most common sizes are 150
200 and 300 millimeters wafers with
large diameters offer more space for
chips extremely thin wafers are then cut
from the silicon Bulls using a special
sawing technique these wafers are the
basic building blocks for subsequent
chip production
silicon is a semiconductor this means it
can conduct electricity and also act as
an insulator it's atomic structure looks
like this every silicon atom has four
outer electrons there are no free charge
carriers as a result the pure mono
crystalline silicon is non conductive at
room temperature to allow it to become
conductive small quantities of specific
atoms are added as impurities to the
wafer these impurity atoms must have a
number of outer electrons that is either
one more or one less than that of
silicon silicon is in the fourteenth
group of the periodic table of elements
this means that elements in the
thirteenth or fifteenth group have to be
used in this process referred to as
doping boron and phosphorus atoms are
the most suitable elements in these
groups they are very close to silicon on
the periodic table and therefore have
very similar properties phosphorus has
five outer electrons when it is inserted
into the silicon crystal lattice the
fifth phosphorus electron can move
freely this means that the silicon
phosphorus crystal is n conductive
in contrast boron atoms only have three
outer electrons when they are introduced
into the silicon lattice one silicon
electron has nothing to bond to this
creates electron holes the holes move
through the crystal like positively
charged particles making the material P
conductive
[Music]
transistors are built on the P and n
conductive layers that exist in a doped
wafer transistors are the smallest
control units in microchips their job is
to control electric voltages and
currents and they are by far the most
important components of electronic
circuits every transistor on a chip
contains P and n conductive layers made
of silicon crystals they also have an
additional layer of silicon oxide which
acts as an insulator a layer of
electrically conductive polysilicon is
applied on top of this every transistor
has three terminals the middle one is
attached to the gate which is the
electrically conductive polysilicon if
an electrical charge is applied to only
the two outer terminals electricity
cannot flow as the transistor is blocked
this changes however if an additional
charge is applied to the middle terminal
electrons from the P layer are then
pulled toward the middle terminal and
accumulate at the area bordering the
silicon crystal and the insulating gate
oxide
a channel then forms underneath the gate
between the islands of n conductive
material electrons can now flow through
this channel the electrical circuit is
closed in this way the transistor can be
switched back and forth between current
and Nabal and disabled between 0 & 1 on
and off but how are these layers created
on a wafer the process to manufacture
chips from a wafer starts with the
layout and design phase highly complex
chips are made up of billions of
integrated and connected transistors
enabling sophisticated circuits such as
microcontrollers and crypto chips to be
built on a semiconductor surface
measuring just a few square millimeters
in size the sheer number of components
calls for an in-depth design process
this entails defining the chips
functions simulating its technical and
physical properties testing its
functionality and working out the
individual transistor connections
special design tools are used to draw up
the plans for integrated circuits and
develop a three-dimensional architecture
of sandwich layers this blueprint is
transferred to photo masks
providing geometric images of the
circuits the photo masks are used as
image templates during the subsequent
chip fabrication process to ensure that
the microscopic structures of a chip are
reproduced flawlessly they have to be
fabricated in a dust-free environment
with stable temperature and humidity
levels in other words they have to be
made in a cleanroom a cleanroom is a
room in which no more than one particle
of dust larger than 0.5 micrometers is
permitted in around 10 litres of air
this is even cleaner than the air in an
operating room
the ventilation filtration and supply
systems in a cleanroom therefore have to
be extremely sophisticated several
million cubic meters of air are
circulated every hour and hundreds of
air volume regulators maintain a
constant airflow employees in these
production areas have to abide by an
extremely strict dress code they are not
permitted to smoke before work or wear
any makeup or jewelry cleanroom
production areas can only be accessed
through a special airlock chips are
built on a base wafer cut from a silicon
pool depending on their size
several dozen or several thousand chips
can be fabricated on one wafer
first of all the surface of the wafer is
oxidized in a high-temperature furnace
operating at approximately 1,000 degrees
Celsius to create a non conductive layer
then a photoresist material is uniformly
distributed on this non conductive layer
using centrifugal force this coating
process creates a light-sensitive layer
the wafer is then exposed to light
through the photo mask in special
exposure machines known as steppers
during this process coaster sized areas
of the chip template known as recta
khals are used to transfer the complex
geometric patterns of the circuit design
to the silicon wafer the exposed area of
the chip pattern is developed revealing
the layer of oxide below the unexposed
part remains as is protecting the layer
of oxide after this the exposed layer of
oxide is etched off in the areas that
have been developed using wet or plasma
etching
with plasma etching special gasses bond
with the substrate to be removed in the
reaction chamber this enables
microscopic layers to be removed in the
windows that were exposed and developed
in the previous step once the
photoresist residue has been stripped
and the wafer has been cleaned the wafer
undergoes further oxidation electrically
conductive polysilicon is deposited on
this insulation layer then photoresist
is applied again and the wafer is
exposed to light through the mask the
exposed photoresist is stripped again
now the polysilicon and the thin oxide
layer are etched off these two layers
only remain intact in the centre under
the photoresist the next step is the
doping process where impurity atoms are
introduced into the exposed silicon and
ion implanter is used to shoot impurity
atoms into the silicon this changes the
conductivity of the exposed silicon by
fractions of a micrometer
after the photoresist residue has been
stripped another oxide layer is applied
the wafer undergoes another cycle of
applying photoresist exposure through
the mask
and stripping contact holes are etched
to provide access to the conductive
layers enabling the contacts and
interconnections to be integrated in the
wafer this is done by depositing metal
alloys onto the wafer in sputtering
machines
[Music]
once again the photoresist and masks are
applied the unexposed strips remain as
is after the etching process providing a
point of contact to the underlying
layers to give the insulation layer
above the interconnections the smooth
finish it requires a chemical mechanical
process is used to polish away excess
material with micrometer accuracy these
individual steps may be repeated
multiple times in the fabrication
process until the integrated circuit is
complete depending on the size and type
of chip the wafer will now contain
anything from several dozen to thousands
of chips individual chips are usually
sought out of the wafer the chips are
not lined up flush with each other on
the wafer because tiny parts of the
wafer splinter off during the sawing
process a certain amount of space known
as the scribe line is always left
between the individual chips test
structures are also integrated in the
space between the chips and used to take
measurements immediately after
production these tech structures are
destroyed during the sawing process the
size of the resulting chips typically
varies between one square millimeter and
a few square centimeters the final stage
of fabrication is assembly here the
individual chips are placed in a package
and terminals are attached the result is
a finished semiconductor device which
can be mounted on circuit boards using
different types of terminals over a
thousand connection contacts can be
realized here are some examples of ready
packaged semiconductor components
special larger packages are used for
power semiconductors intended for
applications such as trains electric
cars solar panels and wind turbines
these power semiconductors are designed
to switch electrical currents of up to
several hundred amps and voltages that
run into the thousands
switching at this level generates high
temperatures and this heat has to be
dissipated via cooling areas integrated
into the packages here you can see some
fully packaged power semiconductors
cutting-edge technologies used for
testing at every step in the fabrication
process to ensure the highest quality
levels in chip yield researchers and
developers use scanning electron
microscopes to repeatedly check the
chips at different points in the
production process
if we compare today's micro electronics
with human hair we can see just how
small these devices are the equipment
used to check components and analyze
defects is just as precise these high
levels of precision and quality are
essential at every stage of the workflow
from the production of silicon bulls
through the cleaning room fabrication to
quality control in order to deliver
these tiny building blocks that have
such a big impact on our lives today and
in the future after all demand is rising
for innovative semiconductor solutions
that make life easier safer and greener
for technology that achieves more
consumes less and is available to
everyone
Micro Electronics is the key to a better
future part of your life part of
tomorrow Infineon
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