Department of Electrical and

Electronics Engineering

BITS Pilani Dr. Rahul Kumar,

Pilani Campus
Assistant Professor
 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Semiconductor Fabrication Technology

(EEE F437)
Lecture No. 1 – 2 (Introduction)
Course Information

COURSE OBJECTIVES
• To familiarize with the various technologies used to fabricate ICs.
• Emphasis on the individual process technologies.

Course Description
• Journey of silica sand to silicon integrated circuit (IC), i.e., “making a
chip”.
• Several fabrication steps such as epitaxy, oxidation, chemical vapor
deposition, metallization, ion implantation, diffusion, etching,
lithography etc.
• Hands on experience of some of the processes through Lab session.
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Outcomes

If you complete this course successfully, you should be able to achieve

the following:
• Understand the fabrication principles in detail.
• Be able to understand the principles and considerations behind
modern device and chip fabrication.
• It will help you to know the instruments/machines involved in each
and every process steps.
• Be able to understand the chemical/physical/thermal reactions in the
processes.
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 Prerequisite and Textbook

• Electronic Devices (EEE F214)

• Chemical reactions
• Basic facts about semiconductors and p-n junctions
• Basics of crystal structures

What is expected of you?

To make the subject meaningful, you need to
• Attend the lecture and lab session
• Study the book
• Do the problem sets

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Reference Books

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 Lecture Plan

Section Lecture Topic Brief Reference

#
I 1-2 Introduction to the A brief overview of the course and Ch. 1 TB
Course history, status, and future direction
of IC fabrication.
II 3-5 Semiconductor Fundamentals, Requirements, Ch.2 TB
Fabrication: Complete perspectives and Prospects
Process Flow
III 6- 8 Crystal structures, Structural properties of Silicon Ch. 3, TB
defects, directions,
planes
IV 9-11 Bulk single crystal To learn the art of wafer Ch.3, TB
growth to preparation and some of the basic
Wafer preparation, properties of these wafers.
dopant distribution
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V 12 Semiconductor Introduction to Clean room and wafer cleaning Ch.4,
Manufacturing process (RCA) TB
VI 13-16 Oxidation and Oxidation techniques and systems, focus Ch. 6,
Si/SiO2 interface primarily on the thermal oxidation process and TB
the properties at the Si/SiO2 interface.

VII 17-21 Lithography Different lithography techniques Ch. 5,

(Photolithography, Electron beam, X-ray, etc.), TB
learn how to print the patterns on the wafer
using optical exposure systems. Basics of
Optical systems
VIII 22-25 Dopant Diffusion Understand the doping concept by diffusion Ch. 7,
(Doping process) method. TB

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 26-29 Ion Implantation Understand the doping concept by Ion Ch. 8,
IX (Doping process) Implantation method TB
X 30 Annealing of damages How annealing helps to recover damages Ch. 8,
and masking during and how the thickness of the masking layer TB
implantation improves the masking efficiency.

XI 31-33 Thin Film Deposition Understand different techniques to deposit Ch. 9,

thin films (Chemical/Physical Vapor TB
Deposition systems)
XII 34-36 Etching Introducing various etching mechanism Ch. 10,
involved in CMOS device fabrication TB
XIII 37-40 Metallization and How devices are connected to the outside Ch. 11,
Emerging techniques world and Case Studies TB

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Evaluation

Component Duration Weightage Date & Nature of component

Time (CB/OB)
Mid-Semester Test 90 min. 30% 05/03/2025 CB
Quizzes 15 min. 15% Surprised CB
Regular Lab session 1-2 15% Regular OB
performance hours/week
Comprehensive exam. 120 min 40% 09/05/2025 CB/OB

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 Motivation

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Important Milestones in Electronics

Electron Discovery Vacuum tube Elec. Transistor

Thompson (1897) Early 20th century Bardeen, Brattain, &
Shockley (1947)

First microprocessor First IC

Intel 4004 (1971) MOSFET (1963)
Jack Kilby (1958)

Extreme and Deep

FinFETs (2010)
UV Litho (1990s)

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What is an IC?

• An integrated circuit (IC, also called a chip) is a piece of

semiconductor wafer on which several smaller electronic devices such
as resistors, capacitors, diodes and transistors are fabricated.
• The interconnection of these devices inside the IC forms electrical
circuits which can altogether function as an amplifier, oscillator, timer,
counter, logic gate, computer memory, microcontroller or
microprocessor.

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What is an IC?

An IC can also be defined as a complex set of tiny components and

their interconnection that are imprinted on to a tiny slice of
semiconductor material.

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 IC Evolution

IC has traversed a long way from day one until today, undergoing a
series of evolution phases:
1. Small Scale Integration (SSI):
➢ Small-scale integration is a technology that was first used to describe the
fabrication of 10 to 100 components on a single chip and was used
between 1961 and 1965.
➢ This was useful for the manufacture of flip-flops and logic gates.
2. Medium Scale Integration(MSI):
➢ The world witnessed a shift from small-scale integration to medium-
scale integration between 1966 and 1970 when the fabrication of 100 to
500 components on a single chip was possible.
➢ This technology was helpful for multiplexers, counters, and decoders.
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 IC Evolution

3. Large-Scale Integration (LSI):

➢ With the advancement of technology between 1971 and 1979, 500
to 300,000 components could be fabricated over a single chip
giving birth to the concept of LSI.
➢ This technology proved handy in manufacturing RAM, ROM, and
microprocessors.
4. Very-Large Scale Integration (VLSI):
➢ This technology allowed a huge number of components on a single
chip-about 300,000 to 1,500,000.
➢ VLSI made developing RISC, 16 and 32-bit microprocessors, and
DSP easy.
➢ This technology was in use between the years 1980-1984.
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 IC Evolution

5. Ultra-Large Scale Integration:

• Following 1985, there was a considerable technical breakthrough that
allowed the fabrication of more than 1,500,000 components to billions
on a single chip.
• This technology then found its usage in the making of 64-bit
processors and is used even today with more devices per chip
• Current record (2023) is with deep learning processor Wafer Scale
Engine 2 by Cerebrashaving 2.6 Trillion transistors on the chip with
TSMC 7-nm process!

What is guiding this extraordinary evolution: A prophetic prediction

which became a law (probably as accurate as any law based analytical
or empirical relation). 18
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 IC Evolution

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Moore’s Law

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Moore’s Law

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 NTRS Projection for Future

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Moore’s Law cont.….

• Gordon Moore: co-founder of Intel.

• Predicted that the number of transistors per chip would grow
exponentially (double every 18 months).
• Exponential improvement in technology is a natural trend: e.g.
Steam Engines - Dynamo - Automobile

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Significant tech nodes of century

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Current Status of leading foundries
Table courtesy: ChatGPT

Foundry Leading Node (Prod.) Next Major Node Transistor Type

TSMC 3 nm 2 nm FinFET → GAA
Samsung 3 nm 2 nm GAA
GAA + Backside
Intel Intel 3 20A / 18A
Power
GF 12 nm — FinFET / FD-SOI
UMC 14 nm — FinFET
SMIC 14 nm ~7 nm (limited) FinFET

Current record: Deep learning processor

Wafer Scale Engine 3 by Cerebras
having, 4 Trillion transistors, TSMC 5-
nm process!

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Emerging Options: More Moore &
More than Moore

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Motivation and Relevance
SCL, Mohali

Many more
under review
GAETEC, Hyderabad

Star-C, Bangalore

• Massive R&D in Semicon Tech. to attract global IC manufacturing

companies.
• Large scale education and skill development programs, such as this course,
to ready the required talent pool.
• India’s success in semicon industry depends on the availability of skilled
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What are we Targeting?

• OSAT
• Packaging
• Lower order node
• Compound Semiconductor
• Wide Bandgap Semiconductors

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What constitute a Silicon Chip?

• A pattern of interconnected switches and gates on the surface of a crystal

of semiconductor (typically Si)

• These switches and gates are made of

-areas of n-type silicon
-areas of p-type silicon
-areas of insulator
-lines of conductor (interconnects) joining areas together
Aluminium, Copper, Titanium, Molybdenum, polysilicon, tungsten

• The geometry of these areas is known as the layout of the chip

• Connections from the chip to the outside world are made around the edge
of the chip to facilitate connections to other devices
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• Semiconductor Fabrication Technology will discuss about the “making
of a chip.”
• Journey of Sand (cost penny) to one of the most strategically important
component in today’s world, i.e., IC or chip.

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 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Thank You

BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus