Thin Films For Microelectronics Research Articles

Applications of Thin Films in Microelectronics

Due to their versatility, thin films, which can be formed through many different approaches, are being used in various applications in microelectronics[...]

Controlling the microstructure of poly(vinylidene-fluoride) (PVDF) thin films for microelectronics

Download options Please wait... Article information DOI https://doi.org/10.1039/C3TC31774A Article type Paper Submitted 09 Sep 2013 Accepted 20 Sep 2013 First published 23 Sep 2013 This article is Open Access Download Citation J. Mater. Chem. C, 2013,1, 7695-7702 BibTex EndNote MEDLINE ProCite ReferenceManager RefWorks RIS Permissions Request permissions Controlling the microstructure of poly(vinylidene-fluoride) (PVDF) thin films for microelectronics M. Li, I. Katsouras, C. Piliego, G. Glasser, I. Lieberwirth, P. W. M. Blom and D. M. de Leeuw, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2013, 1, 7695 DOI: 10.1039/C3TC31774A This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes. To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page. If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page. Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content. Social activity Tweet Share Search articles by author Mengyuan Li Ilias Katsouras Claudia Piliego Gunnar Glasser Ingo Lieberwirth Paul W. M. Blom Dago M. de Leeuw

Adhesion Measurement Methods for Thin Films in Microelectronics

Diagnosing and improving adhesion of advanced packaging and thin films is an essential part of the research and development in microelectronics. In this paper, the four-point bend test and the double cantilever beam test among various adhesion measurement methods are reviewed.

Theoretical Analysis of the Baking Process in Two Polymer/Solvent Systems: PMMA/Anisole and PMDA-ODA/NMP

Baking of polymer solutions is very important for preparing uniform thin films in microelectronics. In this study, a general theoretical analysis for baking was developed to predict the variation of polymer film thickness with baking temperature and time. The theoretical analysis result was justified by experimental results from poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)/anisole and poly(pyromellitic dianhydride-co-4,4′-oxydianiline) (PMDA-ODA) amic acid/n-methyl pyrrolidone (NMP) systems. The theoretical analysis included a fixed boundary problem with a temperature-dependent-only diffusion coefficient, and moving boundary problems based on the diffusion coefficient from the Fujita-Doolittle equation and the Vrentas-Duda equation, respectively. The simulated results showed that the modeling equations based on the moving boundary problem with the Vrentas-Duda equation successfully predicted the variation of film thickness in comparison with the other two models. The diffusion coefficient (D), mass-transfer coefficient and Sherwood number (Sh) were used to explain the trend of the baking curves. In the cases of the PMMA/anisole system, the values of Sh increase significantly with increased baking time while the values of D show the opposite trend. This suggests that the baking mechanism has shifted from the evaporation-control mechanism to the diffusion-control mechanism. However, the values of Sh in the polyimide/NMP system are all larger than 15 because of the low diffusion coefficient of the solvent NMP. Hence, the transition of the evaporation-control to the diffusion-control no longer exists in the polymer/solvent system with a high-boiling-point solvent. The model based on the moving boundary problem with the Vrentas-Duda equation simulates a wide range of Sh values and results in higher accuracy than the other two models. © 2001 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.

A new method for estimating residual stresses by instrumented sharp indentation

A general methodology is proposed for the determination of surface residual stresses and residual plastic strains using instrumented sharp indentation. The residual stresses and the residual plastic strains are assumed to be equibiaxial and uniform over a depth (beneath the indented surface) which is at least several times larger than the indentation contact diameter. The indenter load and geometry can be so chosen as to minimize or maximize the contact radius to seek the broadest range of applicability and validity of the proposed method by recourse to macro-, micro- and nanoindentation of elastoplastic materials. Invoking the invariance of contact pressure in the presence of an elastic residual stress, or the change in the instantaneous yield strength of a strain-hardening elastoplastic solid in the presence of a residual plastic strain, a step-by-step method is outlined here to estimate pre-existing residual stress/strain fields. The technique can be directly used for residual stress measurements in such applications as thin films for microelectronics and optoelectronics, structural coatings, and engineered surfaces whose properties are altered by such methods as mechanical working, etching, ion implantation, case hardening, laser treatments, shot peening or laser shock peening. The predictions of the proposed analytical method for determining residual stresses have been shown to compare favorably with finite element predictions as well as available experimental results.

Porous silicon for microelectronics and optoelectronics

Porous silicon is a material which is obtained by anodic dissolution of monocrystalline silicon in concentrated hydrofluoric acid solutions. Its structure consists of a network of interconnected pores of very small radii (in the range 1.5–20 nm) corresponding to porosities which can be varied up to 90% according to the formation parameters: silicon doping level, electrolyte composition and anodic current density. The formation mechanisms of porous silicon are briefly presented, and the main properties of the material are reviewed. It is shown that they are at the origin of different applications in the field of thin films for microelectronics and for microsensor technology. The interest in porous silicon has been renewed recently by the discovery of a bright emission of visible light at room temperature from high porosity porous silicon films. The main characteristics of this new property, which opens up possibilities for silicon based optoelectronics, are described and discussed in relation to the mechanisms proposed for the light emission. Recent results on the visible electroluminescence which is obtained either from electrolytic cells or from solid devices are also presented.

Silicide thin films and their applications in microelectronics

Abstract Silicides are compounds of silicon with other elements in the periodic table. In this paper, usefulness of silicides and their thin films in microelectronics is discussed with emphasis on electrically conducting transition-metal silicides. Following a brief description of the device structure, contact resistance and interconnection delay (silicides are used to reduce these critical performance parameters of devices and integrated circuits), desired materials characteristics, preparation of thin films of silicides, a brief review of reaction kinetics, epitaxial silicides, and stability of silicides are discussed. It is shown that the silicides have found application in microelectronics (even on GaAs) because of their large silicon content, high electrical conductivity, high temperature stability, and corrosion resistance. They can be prepared easily and reliably and show potential for continued application in spite of ever-decreasing device/circuit dimensions in silicon integrated circuits. They offer a possibility of fabricating three-dimensional device/circuit structures and significantly faster heterostructure devices.

Investigation of the Behaviour of Stress in Metallization Thin Films for Microelectronics during Thermal Cycling using High-Temperature X-Ray Diffraction

Investigation of the Behaviour of Stress in Metallization Thin Films for Microelectronics during Thermal Cycling using High-Temperature X-Ray Diffraction

Electromigration in thin-films for microelectronics

Electromigration (EM) is one of the major concerns for the development of ULSI divices, but not all the aspects of the phenomenon are presently well understood. In this paper well established results and unsolved problems are reviewed and discussed. First, the physical model and in particular the influence of the mechanical stress on EM is considered. Then, the various techniques used to characterize electromigration are analyzed, making distinction between traditional techniques (median time to failure technique and resistometric methods) and more recently developed methods (high-resolution resistometric techniques and low-frequency noise measurement), also considering the fast techniques used for metallisation testing in the industrial environment. Finally, a section is devoted to the problem of test-structure and test-procedure standardisation in EM experiments.

Epitaxial Growth of Ba1−xSrxTiO3 Thin Films on YBa2Cu3O7−x Electrode by PE-MOCVD

AbstractPlasma-enhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (PE-MOCVD) has been successfully employed for the deposition of (100) oriented barium strontium titanate (BST) thin films on a variety of substrate and electrode materials. The incorporation of O2 plasma, which was used as oxidation reactant, has helped to reduce the required temperature for deposition of high-quality STO and BST thin films. This low temperature processing may make it possible to integrate BST on Si and GaAs. BST films with low leakage current densities of about 10−7 A/cm2 at 2-volt (about 105 V/cm) operation were obtained from PE-MOCVD processing. Moreover, the BST results of capacitance-temperature (C-T) measurements show that most of the PE-MOCVD BST films have Curie temperatures of about 30–35°C and a peak dielectric constant of 600–800 at zero bias voltage, The sharp transition in the C-T data indicates that the BST films may have a high induced pyroelectric coefficient at room temperature, which is highly desirable for uncooled IR imaging arrays. The x-ray diffraction and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry results show that the BST film composition reproducibility was well controlled at around Ba0.75Sr0.25TiO3 with a 4% variation. Device quality BST thin films with the thickness of 1000–2000 Å were produced. These results indicate that PE-MOCVD has high potential to be further developed and promoted as a production deposition technique providing high permittivity dielectric thin films for microelectronics and IR sensor industries.

Deposition, Characterization, and Application of Aluminum Nitride Thin Films for Microelectronics

AbstractIn this paper we report on a high rate (˜ 100 nm/min) aluminum nitride (AIN) deposition process, as well as several novel applications of AIN thin films for microelectronics and optoelectronics applications. Surface morphology and chemical composition, etchability, etch selectivity to oxide, and step coverage at various deposition temperatures have been investigated by atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and Auger spectroscope (AES). In addition, for the first time, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of AIN films has been carried out and a polishing rate of 270 nm/min has been achieved. Results of several novel processes involving AIN as an etchstop layer in microelectronics and as an optical interconnection in opto-electronics will be presented.

In situ preparation of superconducting YBaCuO thin films on bare silicon

Large scale applications of high T c superconducting thin films in microelectronics depend strongly on the successful preparation of high quality material using conventional substrates like Si or GaAs. By means of the pulsed laser deposition technique, thin YBaCuO films on bare single crystal silicon substrates are deposited. To overcome problems due to strong substrate-film interdiffussion and thus the formation of a highly disordered lattice, the deposition of crystalline material is mandatory. This is accomplished in our experiments using substrate temperatures as high as 700…820°C during deposition. Our films grow as single phase material with the c-axis perpendicular to the film plane. No post deposition treatment is required to obtain high critical temperatures. Our best films so far show metallic behaviour and zero resistance temperature T c o ∼- 80 K. A parameter study of in situ grown thin films shows that the optimum for the deposition temperature depends on the oxygen partial pressure. Our best films grow at T s = 780° C and p = 1 mbar as well as at T s = 720° C and p = 0.5 bar.

Applications of thin films in microelectronics

Abstract Since the inception of solid circuit technology, thin films have been an essential feature of the integrated circuit, providing interconnections on the silicon chip. The main practical problems associated with them have been lack of adhesion, corrosion and electromigration and these will be reviewed. Thin film circuits are used in hybrid microelectronics and applications and examples will be quoted. The appearance of viable thin-film transistors has opened the way to all- thin-film integrated circuits. These need not be expensive to produce and, in some cases, will be competitive with LSI solid circuits. The TFT is particularly suited to large-area applications such as display panels.

Thin films in microelectronics

Thin films in microelectronics

Thin-films in microelectronics

Thin-films in microelectronics