Lecture 11 Isolation Process
Isolation process
1. LOCOS: local oxidation of silicon
PBL: poly-buffered LOCOS
NCL: nitride clad LOCOS
NSL: nitride spacer LOCOS
PEL: poly-encapsulated LOCOS
R-LOCOS: recessed LOCOS
High pressure oxidation
2. STI: shallow trench isolation
3. SOI: silicon on insulator
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Lecture 11 Isolation Process
LOCOS: Local Oxidation of Silicon
Please remind yourself the traditional
LOCOS processes we discussed in Lecture 9
The materials for masking the moisture
(during the FOX growth) is critical.
The selection criteria:
(1) durable at high temperature (1000oC)
(2) good adhesion to Si
(3) good resistance to moisture penetration
(4) no metal ion contamination
Si3N4 meets (1)(3)(4). However, the (2) can
be solved by adding a layer of pad oxide
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Lecture 11 Isolation Process
LOCOS
The LOCOS process is relatively simple and
low-cost. Therefore it has been widely used
in conventional MOS fabrication.
The length of effective active is reduced from
AC to AC-2BB (shown in the figure)
The active area is reduced significantly.
The problem is not serious for the device
designed for >1.0um size.
However, for 0.8~0.35um process, the
traditional LOCOS has to be improved.
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Lecture 11 Isolation Process
LOCOS
This graph shows the formation of Bird’s Beak in LOCOS process.
The thickness of the FOX is determined by the diffusion of H2O and O2 through
SiO2 layer
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Lecture 11 Isolation Process
Poly-Buffered LOCOS (PBL)
The conventional LOCOS process is using
Si3N4 as a masking layer. However, the
stress of the nitride layer is high therefore the
pad oxide has to be thick enough (normally
10~25nm) to improve the adhesion between
nitride and Si.
With the insertion of a stress buffer layer
(poly Si ~ 50-70nm), the pad oxide can be
further reduced to 10nm thick.
The BB can be reduced to 0.3~0.1um
Therefore PBL can be used for 0.8~0.5um IC
fabrication.
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Lecture 11 Isolation Process
Nitride Clad LOCOS (NCL)
Another method to reduce the BB is to clad the
pad oxide using very thin nitride layer
(~10nm).
A diluted HF solution is used to etch away the
pad-oxide around nitrides and the cavity will
be formed.
A thin nitride layer is then deposited to seal the
cavity. The size of BB will be reduced at the
subsequent FOX formation
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Lecture 11 Isolation Process
Nitride Spacer LOCOS (NSL)
The NSL is a variation from NCL method. The
process involved in more complicated.
Using similar process as NCL and adding the
anisotropic etch to form a nitride space as
shown in the graph.
This method can also efficiently inhibit the
growth of BB.
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Lecture 11 Isolation Process
Poly-Encapsulated LOCOS (PEL)
PEL is another improved LOCOS, where it uses
the polySi (~20-30nm) to encapsulate the nitride.
Similar to NSL, another variation is to form a
polySi spacer before FOX formation. This method
is called PSL (poly-spacer LOCOS)
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Lecture 11 Isolation Process
Recessed LOCOS (R-LOCOS)
(a)-(c) show the formation of nitride
spacer and also over etch into the Si.
The subsequent oxidation would reduce
the BB
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Lecture 11 Isolation Process
High Pressure Oxidation
The FOX growth at high temperature
and high pressure will efficiently
depress the length of BB.
However, high pressure has attracted
concerns of safety in Fab. Therefore
this process is not popular ..
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