Title: Semiconductor Process Technologies

Summer semester: 2 SWS

Credit points:  3

Language: English

Success control(s): The success criteria will be determined by an oral examination (approx. 20-30 min.)

Module grade: The module grade is the grade of the oral examination.

Prerequisites: None.

Qualification Goals:

• The students acquire a comprehensive understanding of the integrated circuit fabrication of CMOS, BiCMOS and different MEMS processes, especially for mm-wave and THz applications.
• They have a good understanding of the different process steps (ie lithography, chemical vapor deposition, reactive ion etch, cleaning and etc.) of a CMOS process flow.
• They can describe a complex process flow of a CMOS process together with different high frequency modules such as MEMS and photonics.
• They can identify the pros and cons of different process flows; thus correlate it with the throughput, yield and cost aspects of the semiconductor industry.
• They are familiar with basic packaging approaches of integrated circuits and also special advanced packaging technologies for mm-wave and THz integrated circuits as well.
• They have the basic understanding of the scaling of CMOS industry and the future trends.

content:

In this lecture the basic fabrication technologies of integrated circuits will be given together with the each individual process steps. The front-end and back-end of line parts of the full CMOS/BiCMOS process will be provided. The testing, process monitoring and throughput/yield studies of a CMOS process will be followed after basic understanding of the semiconductor process technologies. A special emphasis on MEMS process technologies will also be given and the integration challenges of additional modules into a CMOS/BiCMOS process will be detailed. Finally, the packaging aspect of the integrated circuit industry will be given for standard and advanced packaging needs. A basic topics planned to be studied under the course are given below:

1. Integrated Circuit Processes
2. Cleaning and wet processes
3. Patterning Processes: Optical and E-beam lithography
4. Thermal processes: oxidation, diffusion, chemical vapor deposition
5. Junction Formation: Ion implantation, spin-on, annealing
6. In-process monitoring, measurement techniques, 
7. Packaging: dicing, wire bonding, encapsulation
8. testing of semiconductor devices; Process Modeling and Yields
9. MOS process integration and MEMS processes 
10. Scaling and future trends
11. Non silicon processing: III-V , MBE, OMCVD

Recommendations:

The lecture materials on "Fundamentals of High Frequency Technology" and "Semiconductor Components" are recommended.

Some other suggested references are given below:

1. 1. Introduction to Microelectronic Fabrication; Hunter; Prentice Hall
2. 2. The Science and Engineering of Microelectronic Fabrication; Campbell; Oxford
3. 3. Silicon Processing for the VLSI Era; Wolf and Tauber; Lattice Press
4. 4. Microelectronics Processing and Device Design; colliers; Wiley
5. 5. VLSI Technology; sze; McGraw-Hill

Workload:

Each credit point corresponds to an approximately 25-30h of workload on average. Based on this, the amount of work for this lecture is calculated as follows:

1. Attendance to the lectures (15*2=30h)

2. Preparation for the lectures (15*2=30h)

3. Preparation for the oral exam (40 hours)

Total: 100h

You can go to Ilias page for registration.