OVERVIEW AND MATERIALS

This course is unlike many that you may have taken in that the material that will be covered is primarily a number of unit processes that are quite distinct from one another. The book then has the flavor of a survey of topics that will be covered rather than a linear progression. This part of the book will lay the foundations that will be needed to later understand the various fabrication processes.

The first chapter will provide a roadmap of the course and an introduction to integrated circuit fabrication. The processes that are covered are briefly described in a qualitative manner, and the relationships between the various topics are discussed. A simple example of a semiconductor technology, the fabrication of integrated resistors, is used to demonstrate a flow of these processes, which we will call a technology. Extensions of the technology to include capacitors and MOSFETs are also discussed.

The second chapter will introduce the topic of crystal growth and wafer production. The chapter contains basic materials information that will be used throughout the rest of the book. This includes crystal structure and crystal defects, phase diagrams, and the concept of solid solubility. Unlike the other unit processes that will be covered in the later chapters, very few device manufacturers actually grow their own wafers. The topic of wafer production, however, demonstrates some of the important properties of semiconductor materials that will be significant both during the fabrication process and to the eventual yield and performance of the integrated circuit. The differences in the production of silicon and GaAs wafers are discussed.