Section 6 Introduction: Process Gases, Chemicals and Materials Future Fab Intl. Volume 23, July 09, 2007
What a wonderful time to be working in the semiconductor industry. It seems as the industry pursues Moore’s law that the innovation required has accelerated at an exponential rate. The 2006 update to the ITRS roadmap shows a general acceleration in the scaling of several key parameters.
Gregory D. Winterton, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Giuseppe Fazio, Numonyx

 Can Spin-on or CVD Porous Low-k Films Meet Future Integration Needs? Future Fab Intl. Volume 23, July 09, 2007
The 2006 Interconnect Update for the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) describes a continued reduction in the bulk and effective dielectric constants for interlevel dielectrics.
Richard F. Reidy, University of North Texas

 Materials Stretch to Enable 32nm Future Fab Intl. Volume 23, July 09, 2007
As devices move toward the 32nm technology node, materials will become even more important to enable proper device function and performance. Higher-price materials and processes are being considered more today than ever before because scaling down the size of the device cannot be done with the traditional process materials.
Steve Holland, Techcet Group, LLC, Lita Shon-Roy, Techcet Group, LLC, John Housley, Techcet Group, LLC, Karey Holland, Ph.D., Techcet Group, LLC, Robert M. Geffken, Ph.D., Consultant, Larry F. Thompson, IPSSLP

 Repeatedly Lucky? Future Fab Intl. Volume 23, July 09, 2007
The extent of the material change in SC chips brings significant opportunities for gambling: Hf or Zr?, ALD or CVD?, batch or single wafer, O3 or H2O, TEMAH or TDEAH? These are the choices that our customers are making every day, and just for one application.

 When Other Graphite Materials Hit the Wall, Poco Graphite Breaks Through Future Fab Intl. Volume 23, July 09, 2007
Ten years ago, many people believed that graphite materials and their usefulness in semiconductor applications would soon hit the wall. Today graphite materials continue to be used as preferred component materials in many types of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In order to provide next-generation equipment that offers a technology advantage for its customers at an economic price, equipment manufacturers continually seek the best component materials and eliminate troublesome materials that reduce the uptime of equipment. Graphite, along with metals, was one of several component materials that industry experts predicted would not be able to meet the challenge of the new processes. Were their predictions wrong? Well, yes and no.

 The Wonderful World of Wiring – on the Nanoscale Future Fab Intl. Volume 22, January 09, 2007
Nanowires provide key components for applications ranging from integrated circuits to sensors to interfaces between biological systems and computer chips. Here we discuss progress towards selfassembly of nanowire structures, which is essential to overcome the limitations of existing assembly technologies, and in order to unlock the commercial potential of nanowire technologies.
Simon Brown, Nano Cluster Devices, Ltd.

 SF₆ Replacement for Dry Etching Techniques in IC Development and Manufacturing Conforming to EHS Strategy Future Fab Intl. Volume 22, January 09, 2007
The enormous recent growth of many countries around the world, not only in the more advanced regions, but also in the new economies such as China, India and Brazil, is resulting in a very difficult situation for our planet in terms of environmental resources. The recent worldwide global warming is one the most severe consequences of this uncontrolled growing and consumption, which could lead in few decades to a dramatic natural and economic recession. General pollution is one of the key factors of this environmental degradation, and gas emission is the main contributor of the actual status of our atmosphere.
Mario Pistoni, STMicroelectronics , Irene Bianchi, STMicroelectronics

 Atomic Layer Deposition of Hafnium and Aluminum Oxides on Silicon Using tetrakis(diethylamino) hafnium and tris(diethylamino)aluminum Precursors With Ozone Future Fab Intl. Volume 21, July 01, 2006
Consumer demand for smaller electrical devices that exhibit superior performance while consuming less power has motivated the microelectronics industry to push for higher and higher circuit densities, which in turn requires feature size down to the nanometer scale in manufactured semiconductor devices. As a result, future generations of semiconductor devices require new materials to satisfy increasingly stringent requirements placed on the properties of deposited films.
Ronald Inman, Air Liquide Electronics Europe, Greg Jursich, Air Liquide Electronics Europe

 INTRODUCTION SECTION 7 - PROCESS GASES, CHEMICALS AND MATERIALS Future Fab Intl. Volume 21, July 01, 2006
I sometimes sit at my desk and ponder why it is we do what we do for a living. What is it in us that drives us to continue in this vocation? There is an expression that “it doesn’t need to be high tech to make money.” There world is full of individuals who have become quite wealthy in low-tech industries. A recent study by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology concluded that the electronics industry accounts for 10 percent of the United States GDP. That means that 90 percent of the United States’ $12 trillion GDP is driven by other industries. The President’s Council also concluded that 30 percent of the GDP growth is driven by the electronics industry. I believe it is the challenge of the technology that drives so many of us. Many of us chose to take on the challenge of bringing a technology from the laboratory into the production mainstream. It is the engineer in us that drives us to figure out how to make this work in the real world. I sometimes hear the comment “you are such an engineer.” take this comment with a bit of pride since it is the practical side of me that is trying to figure out the relationships and interactions and how I can apply them for my benefit. We learn from our experience and the experience of others how we can realize these technologies in our factories and in our lives.
Gregory D. Winterton, Texas Instruments Incorporated

 INTRODUCTION SECTION 7 – PROCESS GASES, CHEMICALS AND MATERIALS Future Fab Intl. Volume 21, July 01, 2006
It's evident to everybody that technology is in a state of continuous evolution and that in the last 10 years it's been accelerating much faster than in the previous years. Even when differing time periods had different growth rates, they were characterized by a common denominator: all of the scientists and engineers that contributed, that are contributing now and who will contribute to the technological evolution, are stimulated by a great sense of ambition for the future and also have an intimate knowledge of past studies. This ambition for the future is necessary in order to find new solutions and for their continuous improvement. Knowledge of previous studies is necessary to give continuity to growth; these two aspects are therefore, fundamental in our field. This section contains articles that are a good example of this.
Giuseppe Fazio, Numonyx

 Structure-Property Relationships in Ultrathin Hf-Based Gate Dielectrics Future Fab Intl. Volume 21, July 01, 2006
A HfSiON gate dielectric has been integrated into a gate-first approach with a conventional CMOS process flow and high thermal budget. The HfSiON gate dielectric was scaled to 1.0nm equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) while maintaining 90 percent of the universal SiO2 mobility. Furthermore, the significantly reduced charge trapping with <2.0nm thick HfSiON results in enhanced mobility and reliability. This performance and reliability progress in optimized HfSiON demonstrate that, when combined with proper band edge work function metal electrodes, this dielectric can be used for the 45nm technology node.
M.A. Quevedo-Lopez, SEMATECH, S. Krishnan, SEMATECH, P. Kirsch, Intel Corporation, H.N. Alshareef, SEMATECH, B.E. Gnade, IBM, M.J. Kim, IBM, Robert Wallace, University of Texas at Dallas, B.H. Lee, IBM, Raj Jammy, SEMATECH

 Corrosion of Welded 316L Stainless Steel Tubes Future Fab Intl. Volume 20, January 07, 2006
It has been claimed that during the welding of 316L alloys, manganese evaporates from the weld pool and redeposits in the heat-affected zone, primarily downstream of the weld pool, causing corrosion. A study was performed on four alloys to determine the corrosion behavior of ultralow-manganese and low-manganese 316L alloys in different gaseous environments. In addition, a weld fume analysis was performed to determine which elements evaporate to a significant extent during orbital welding, and whether it is the evaporation of manganese that is responsible for any differences in corrosion behavior. Results showed that all four alloys demonstrated very similar corrosion behavior, and they released predominantly iron in approximately the same amount. Thus, it is believed that the evaporation and redeposition of iron, not manganese, negatively impacts the corrosion resistance of welded low-manganese and ultralow-manganese stainless steel alloys in chlorine containing, moist, gaseous atmospheres.
Gerhard Schiroky, Swagelok Company, Gary Henrich, Swagelok Company

 Current Status and Future Perspectives of Wafer Bonding (Smart Cut™) SOI Technology Future Fab Intl. Volume 20, January 07, 2006
Current status and future perspectives for SOI (silicon-on-insulator) using Smart Cut™ technology will be reviewed. First, industrial growth of SOI production mainly driven by MPU and low-power LSI applications will be presented, with a focus on the rapid growth of 300mm SOI wafer production and advancement of Si thickness control. Next, versatility of the bonding (Smart Cut™) technology will be described, exemplified by the future device candidates, such as strained-Si on insulator, ultrathin-FD structures, FinFET, combination of different crystal orientations, and Ge-on-insulator. Thirdly, it will be shown that bonding technology can be extended to realize totally different functions, such as SOQ (silicon-on-quartz) and combination of Si technology with compound semiconductors, which cannot be realized by conventional bulk Si nor bulk compound semiconductors. Throughout this presentation, it will be shown that wafer bonding technology provides not only solutions for survival of CMOS scaling, but also contributes to diversification of functionality in LSIs, which will meet the needs of the future IT society.
Makoto Yoshimi, Soitec Asia, Inc, Carlos Mazure, Soitec USA, Inc.

 SECTION 7 – INTRODUCTION: PROCESS GASES, CHEMICALS AND MATERIALS Future Fab Intl. Volume 20, January 07, 2006
Welcome to the process gases, chemicals and materials section of Future Fab. I cannot speak for you, but for me as a child growing up on a farm I liked to take things apart. There was this part of me that needed to understand how things worked. While I often did this much to my father’s chagrin, it helped me in my development of how things in the world really worked. Now, mind you, I don’t have the time or the skill to take everything apart I want to so I can understand how everything works (not to mention voiding the warranties when you break the seal). This is where other forms of learning must enter into the picture. I know I usually hit the literature when some problem arises that I am not educated enough on to make an educated guess as to the mechanism of the issue. This allows us to benefit from the learning of other individuals and allows us to make progress at a great rate. Most of us are employed for the use of our knowledge, and this is the capital we bring to the jobsite. I understand it is difficult to have the time to read everything that we would like to. I also know there are many distractions that often do not allow us sufficient time for more intel- Greg Winterton Integration Engineering Manager, DLP™ Products, Texas Instruments lectual pursuits. Publications such as Future Fab allow us to understand how things work such that we can apply this knowledge in our own fields of endeavors. It allows us to take things apart in our minds, understand how the pieces fit together, and apply this logic in other facets and disciplines. The world has changed over the past hundred years, and the necessity to hunt and possess physical strength has been replaced with the ability to learn and to quickly bring knowledge to bear on issues. Continued learning is what allows us to remain strong in our industry and to compete on a global level. I am not a giant in our industry, but applying the knowledge of others has allowed me to achieve some modest degree of success.
Gregory D. Winterton, Texas Instruments Incorporated

 SECTION 7 – INTRODUCTION: PROCESS GASES, CHEMICALS AND MATERIALS Future Fab Intl. Volume 20, January 07, 2006
Well, here I am with my first contribution as an editorial board membor for Future Fab. This first introduction of mine coincides exactly with the 10th anniversary of the magazine. Ten years is by no means a short time. On the contrary, the 20 editions are a demonstration of the well-executed job carried out by the team.
Giuseppe Fazio, Numonyx

 Algorithm for an Approximate Calculation of the ‘Z-Factor’ to Be Implemented in ROR Systems Future Fab Intl. Volume 19, June 28, 2005
The possibility to have a method accurate and in-situ pressed the OEM vacuum systems to use the Rate Of Rise (ROR) method in the automatic gas calibration control. Some of our direct experiences have shown the inefficiency of the method for particular gasses like, for example, the C_nF_m gasses family. For these gasses, instead of the ideal gasses law it’s necessary to use the Real gasses law That makes use of the Z-Factor. Therefore the Z-Factor turns out to be the fundamental parameter to pass from ideal gasses law to real gasses law. In this writing different methods to find the Z-Factor will be shown and commented.
Giuseppe Fazio, Numonyx

 Introduction: Process Gases, Chemicals and Materials Future Fab Intl. Volume 19, June 28, 2005
“The only thing constant is change.” I'm not sure who to attribute this quote to, but I do know it applies very well to our industry. One aspect where the rate of change appears to be increasing is that of materials. We are all familiar with the basic reason for increasing integration, shrinking geometries and cost factors, however we often overlook the changes being driven by regulatory changes. Changes by various government regulations and policies can have profound impact in the gases, chemicals and materials used in the fabrication of electronic devices. These policies are set by our legislative bodies, which are largely non-technical in training. These bodies are comprised of individuals with political agendas who are counseled by scientific bodies with their own agendas. Most of us are woefully ignorant of these forces that act on our industry. While the industry has standards bodies, most do not address regulatory concerns.
Gregory D. Winterton, Texas Instruments Incorporated

 Quartz Alternatives: Implementing New Materials for Fixturing in Batch Furnaces Future Fab Intl. Volume 19, June 28, 2005
High-purity quartz has long been the material of choice for process tubes, liners, wafer carriers and other fixturing in batch furnaces. The use of quartz does have some limitations depending on the furnace processes. In many cases, those process-related problems could be overcome by implementing the use of alternate materials. Replacing quartz fixturing with alternate materials is considered a high-risk activity due to potential contamination issues and process-related concerns. In general, the immediate cost of alternate materials tends to be higher than quartz, which would suggest undertaking an in-depth investigation of the cost of ownership.
Bob Groves, ATDF

 Strained Silicon Process Challenges for Advanced Technology Nodes Future Fab Intl. Volume 19, June 28, 2005
Strained silicon technology has emerged as one of the leading extension approaches to enhance the performance of today's semiconductor devices. This technology has been adopted in production in select companies and is on the roadmap of most major integrated device manufacturers at the 65 nm process node. It appears likely that this technology will continue through future generations almost certainly in concert with a range of other advanced process strategies. The specific mode of introducing strain - uniaxial or biaxial, for example - for future generations will depend strongly on unique integration challenges and the ability to maintain and/or control enhancement in aggressively scaled devices.
Michael Gostkowski, ATDF , Brendan Foran, ATDF

 Method And Device For Mass Flow Controller Control Through Regulation Valve Future Fab Intl. Volume 18, January 12, 2005
The gas flow control assumes an important role in many industrial sectors. The gas comes from a gas cylinder or piping and arrives at the reactor after passing through some elements (different valves, filters, flow controllers, etc.). Of course, the mass flow controller is by far the most important element for a correct gas supply. In a high-tech industry such as semiconductors, the thermal mass flow controller (TMFC) is the most diffused mass flow controller.
Giuseppe Fazio, Numonyx, Fabio Somboli, Segibo

 Precursors For Atomic Layer Deposition Of High-k Dielectrics Future Fab Intl. Volume 18, January 12, 2005
Insulators with high dielectric constants (k) play several critical roles in modern semiconductor devices, including capacitors that store memory bits in DRAMs, decoupling filter capacitors protecting microcircuits from undesired noise, and insulating gates from channels in transistors. Scaling of semiconductor devices to follow Moore’s Law past the 65 nm node will require higher-k insulators to maintain capacitance on smaller devices. At the same time, complex structures, such as deep trenches and rough pedestals, have been introduced to keep the available capacitor areas from shrinking too rapidly. Thus any future higher-k dielectrics must be produced uniformly within the increasingly narrow spaces in these structures.
Charles B. Musgrave, Stanford University, Roy G. Gordon, Harvard University

 SECTION 7: INTRODUCTION Future Fab Intl. Volume 18, January 12, 2005
We continue to evolve as an industry. We continue to see the evolution of the technologies we use to manufacture our products. The advent of liquid immersion lithography, high-k gate dielectrics, low-k interconnect dielectrics, alternative metals, strained silicon and doping schemes all have the same goal of increasing integration. We must not forget the reasons behind this are purely financial. There are many companies trying to build the better mouse trap to capture market share and return profits to their companies and investors. Those who get there first have the greatest chance of reaping the greatest financial reward. This all must be done with an eye toward the bottom line. The best mouse trap must be cost-competitive with the other mouse traps being sold.
Gregory D. Winterton, Texas Instruments Incorporated

 Fundamentals of Low-k Chemistry Future Fab Intl. Volume 17, June 21, 2004
From the advent of the semiconductor era until the 250 nm node, miniaturization brought speed enhancements. The metal/dielectric system was constant with tungsten/aluminum (W/Al) and silicon dioxide (SiO2). Ten years ago, the National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (NTRS) introduced the need for copper and low-k materials to reduce RC time delays.
Carlye Case, Solid State Solutions

 Section 7 Introduction, Vol. 17: Process Gases, Chemicals and Materials Future Fab Intl. Volume 17, June 21, 2004
I trust everyone is having a good summer as our industry has returned to some of the strength we have known. It seems the talk of what we do during a downturn to preserve our business has swung around to the continued technology push of Moore’s Law and how we can achieve the goals set by our businesses. Lets face it, we’re all here to make money, and we can compete better with improved technology in terms of performance, level of integration, and cost. This issue of Future Fab provides well-timed papers on low-k materials, chemistry, and integration. These topics are very germane to the issues currently faced today.
Gregory D. Winterton, Texas Instruments Incorporated

 The Mechanical Side of Ultra-Low k: Can it Take the Strain? Future Fab Intl. Volume 17, June 21, 2004
The need for increased performance and reduced power in large logic chips has driven reduction of the dielectric constant for the interlayer dielectric (ILD) layers with each succeeding silicon generation. The primary approach to reduce dielectric constant has been the introduction of increasing amounts of porosity in the ILD material.
Biju Chandran, Intel Corporation, Ravi Mahajan, Intel Corporation, Mark Bohr, Intel Corporation, Chia-Hong Jan, Intel Corporation, Quat T. Vu, Intel Corporation

 A Study on the Effect of Nitrogen in FSG Film on Cu VFDD Integration Future Fab Intl. Volume 16, February 03, 2004
Via electrical characteristics are very important to achieve high yield and reliable device performance in Cu VFDD (via first dual damascene). In this paper, the effect of FSG films as intermetalic dielectrics on via module process are studied. Nitrogen in the FSG films produces a hard polymer with C-N bond inside the via during via etching and contributes to induce photoresist poisoning in small overlap contact between metal and via after trench photolithography. After trench etching, photoresist poisoning develops to form a fence around the via contact. These hard polymers and fencing degrade the via Rc and results in up to 50 percent Rc failures in via chain pattern with small overlap between metal and via. In order to solve these problems, low-nitrogen PEFSG has been adopted which is originated from a He-ambient process. Finally, robust via module process with 20 percent lower Rc val
Jungwoo Lee, Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd

 CAD Technology Moves Forward with Ready-Made Templates Downloadable from the Internet, CD-ROM Future Fab Intl. Volume 16, February 03, 2004
Computer-aided design (CAD) has been an important tool for semiconductor manufacturing engineers since the technology’s inception in the mid 1980s. Virtually all toolmakers, installers, and integrators employ the technology for the design and manipulation of fluid systems assemblies.
Thomas J. Gubanc, Swagelok Company, Peter Mooney, Thomas Register

 Efficient Pore Sealing Crucial for Future Interconnects Future Fab Intl. Volume 16, February 03, 2004
The introduction of low-k materials is driven by the ever-increasing requirements or electrical performance of advanced interconnects. Today, it is recognized that low-k materials with a dielectric constant below three are porous to some degree. In the ultra-low-k materials, porosity may constitute 40 percent and more of the volume of the materials. Therefore, integration and reliability engineers now have to deal with the high diffusivity of precursors, solvents, and moisture in the porous materials. In addition, when a thin barrier film is deposited on a porous dielectric, the porosity of the substrate may translate into a porous barrier film. Pore sealing therefore has become key to obtain acceptable reliability performance of the interconnect.
Mieke Van Bavel, IMEC; Leuven, Belgium, Gerald Beyer, imec, Thomas Abell, imec, Francesca Iacopi, imec, Denis Shamiryan, imec, Karen Maex, imec

 Impact of Newater as Feedwater for the Production of Ultra-High-Purity Deionized Water and Manufacturing Process Future Fab Intl. Volume 16, February 03, 2004
The impact and use of “newater” as feedwater in the production of deionized (DI) water for SSMC was evaluated. It includes studying the presence of urea, ionic contaminations, and all online analytical parameters. Sophisticated studies on the impact of newater on the manufacturing processes and performance of DI water plant were reviewed.
Paul Tan , SSMC, Harry Seah, Singapore Public Utilities Board

 SECTION 6 INTRODUCTION, VOL 16: Process Gases Chemicals & Materials Future Fab Intl. Volume 16, February 03, 2004
One of the first things I had written in Future Fab was the cyclic nature of our industry. It was only a last year that the Grinch stole Christmas as the industry wallowed in the pit of the last downturn. While I’m not sure the Grinch’s heart has increased tenfold in size and Christmas was saved this year, all indications are that we are well into the recovery and that 2004 should be a good year for all.
Gregory D. Winterton, Texas Instruments Incorporated

 Views from the Top: Mark F. Gruninger Future Fab Intl. Volume 16, February 03, 2004
Mark Gruninger was named vice president, Praxair Electronics, in 2002. He has global responsibility for Praxair’s integrated portfolio of process consumables, fab infrastructure and services, and process tool solutions serving the semiconductor industry. Gruninger joined Praxair Surface Technologies in 1987 as a senior project engineer and subsequently led engineering and technology programs in advanced materials. He also served Praxair Surface Technologies as associate director, Technology; business manager, Polishing Products; general manager, Specialty Products, and was named vice president, Specialty Products, in 2000. He was instrumental in several acquisitions to broaden Praxair’s portfolio of offerings to the electronics business. Gruninger earned bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in ceramic engineering from Rutgers University and a master’s of science degree in management from Purdue University.
Mark F. Gruninger, Praxair Electronics

 Grown-in Microdefects in Silicon as a Guide to the Properties of Point Defects Future Fab Intl. Volume 15, July 11, 2003
Simulation of vacancy and self-interstitial distributions in silicon crystals is an important modern field of activity[1-3]. In order to perform such simulations, values for many parameters of the intrinsic point defects are required.
Vladimir Voronkov, MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc., Robert Falster, MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.

 SECTION 6 INTRODUCTION, VOL 15: Process Gases, Chemicals and Materials Future Fab Intl. Volume 15, July 11, 2003
Welcome to the process gases, chemicals and materials section of Future Fab. Silicon. The vast majority of the world’s semiconductors are manufactured on this amazing material. It is the heart and soul of our industry. Industry pundits have been predicting the death of silicon for over a decade yet silicon remains the material of choice to fabricate today’s integrated circuits. Researchers and laboratories all over the world continue to explore ways to exploit silicon to our advantage. Unfortunately, most of us in the wafer fab environment take for granted those round shiny incoming wafers and are ignorant of the engineering that has gone into their production. The devil is in the details and fortunately most fab engineers don’t need to understand the intricate nature of precipitates, oxygen concentration, intrinsic gettering, OPs, crystal angle and the host of other silicon specifications. Read more.
Gregory D. Winterton, Texas Instruments Incorporated

 Strained Silicon: Improving Chip Performance While Reducing Manufacturing Risk and Cost Structure Future Fab Intl. Volume 15, July 11, 2003
The semiconductor industry has sustained a tremendous average growth rate over the past four decades. Device size reduction, the essence of Moore’s Law, has been the foundation of the industry roadmap during this time period. The industry has benefited by adhering to transistor scaling as the price per transistor on a silicon microchip has been reduced by more than six orders of magnitude during the past 30 years. The benefits of Moore’s Law have not come cheaply; state-of-the-art chip manufacturing facilities, in which equipment sets are upgraded or replaced at each technology node transition, now cost to the order of billions of dollars.
Mayank T. Bulsara, AmberWave Systems

 Dynamics of Point Defects and Formation of Microdefects in Czochralski Crystal Growth: Modeling, Simulation and Experiments Future Fab Intl. Volume 14, February 11, 2003
Most common microdefects in Czochralski silicon, voids and dislocation loops, are formed by agglomeration of point defects, vacancies and self-interstitials, respectively. Dynamics of formation and growth of the microdefects along with the entire crystal pulling process is simulated. The Frenkel reaction, the transport and the nucleation of the point defects and the growth of the microdefects are considered to occur simultaneously. The nucleation is modeled using the classical nucleation theory. The diffusion-limited growth of the nucleated precipitates is assumed. The microdefect distribution at any given location is captured on the basis of the formation history of nuclei. The microdefect type and size distributions in crystals grown under steady state as well as unsteady state are predicted. The surface energies for voids and interstitial clusters are determined using experimental results. The model predictions agree very well with the experimental results. Various predictions of the model are presented and the results are discussed.
Milind S. Kulkarni, MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc., Vladimir Voronkov, MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc., Robert Falster, MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.

 Integration of High-k Gate Stacks into Planar, Scaled CMOS Integrated Circuits Future Fab Intl. Volume 14, February 11, 2003
The gate stack should be regarded as a multi-element interfacial layered structure wherein the high-k gate dielectric and gate electrodes (and their corresponding interfaces) must be successfully comprehended. The surface clean and subsequent surface conditioning prior to high-k deposition as well as post -deposition annealing parameters significantly impact the equivalent oxide thickness and leakage current as well as the traditional parameters such as threshold voltage, saturation current, transconductance, and sub-threshold swing. The control of both the fixed electrical charges and charge traps incorporated at the various interfaces and within the high-k bulk film is of paramount importance to achieve the requisite transistor characteristics and, in particular, the effective carrier mobility. Interactive effects within the gate stack process modules and the subsequent integrated circuit fabrication process requires the utmost attention to achieve the desired IC performance characteristics and help facilitate the continuance of Moore’s Law towards the 10 nm physical gate length regime.
Howard R. Huff, International SEMATECH, A. Hou, International SEMATECH, C. Lim, International SEMATECH, Y. Kim, International SEMATECH, J. Barnett, International SEMATECH, G. Bersuker, International SEMATECH, George A. Brown, International SEMATECH, C.D. Young, International SEMATECH, P.M. Zeitzoff, International SEMATECH, P. Lysaght, International SEMATECH, M. I. Gardner, International SEMATECH, R.W. Murto, International SEMATECH

 Pressure Rate of Rise: an Unusual In Situ MFC Calibration Method Description, Critical Aspects and “New” Algorithms Future Fab Intl. Volume 14, February 11, 2003
The pressure rate of rise (ROR) technique is one of the widespread calibration methods used for MFCs. The methodology itself is not clear to most people, being halfway between the classical maintenance competences and the process engineering techniques. It is a topical subject and needs to be detailed: the use of new gases has pointed out some limitations in the old procedures, while the ability to perform in situ MFCs calibration checks – wherever possible – has always been particularly crucial. Starting from easy examples, up to the gas state equations, this paper describes, step by step, the ROR technique applied to vacuum process chambers, justifying in a scientific way some experimental test results obtained in Central R&D, STMicroelectronics (Agrate, Italy).
Fabio Somboli, Segibo

 SiGe Comes of Age in the Semiconductor Industry Future Fab Intl. Volume 13, July 08, 2002
It’s difficult to open a semiconductor journal or attend a design forum or communications symposium without realizing that SiGe is hot. The business world reports new products using SiGe technology on a nearly daily basis and Wall Street focuses on multi-million dollar deals revolving around the semiconductor industry’s new ‘darling’. References are even commonplace in non-technical periodicals as reporting of the communications and e-business world captures the general public’s interest and has become ingrained in our lifestyles.
D C Ahlgren, Unaxis USA Inc., J Dunn, Unaxis USA Inc., B Jagannathan, Unaxis USA Inc.

 SOI Technology for the GHz Era Future Fab Intl. Volume 13, July 08, 2002
Deep submicron room-temperature bulk CMOS has been the main technology used for ULSI systems, and CMOS scaling has been the primary tool for improving system performance. Over the last three decades, Silicon on insulator (SOI) has been identified as one possible method for increasing the performance of CMOS over that offered by simple scaling. SOI has been under development by a number of companies since early 1970s. Its attraction has been performance enhancement.
Ghavam G Shahidi, IBM Microelectronics Division

 Digital Mass Flow Controllers (DMFCs) Control and Application Future Fab Intl. Volume 12, February 02, 2002
This article refers to some of the experiences reported in R2 (Central R&D, STMicroelectronics, Agrate, Italy), on the management and applications related to Digital Mass Flow Controllers (DMFCs). We will describe the specific hardware setup, the tools which have been used, and the final results. Regarding DMFCs' operations and performance, please read the "References" Section in this article. All described experiences are inherent to AERA DMFCs installed on TEL (a-8 furnaces) and on AMAT equipment (Centura 5200, HDPCVD).
Fabio Somboli, Segibo, Giuseppe Fazio, Numonyx

 Orthoganal Defect Solutions for Silicon Wafers: MDZ and Micro-Defect Free Crystal Growth Future Fab Intl. Volume 12, February 02, 2002
The silicon industry is maturing. Mature industries have, or should have, different concerns than young industries. Somewhere at the core of the silicon industry lies a question of whether or not silicon wafers are a commodity or rather an engineered product highly tailored to specific applications. It is a question that ripples through many aspects of the business and the technology that supports it. At the core of this question is the problem of defectivity. One of the features which characterized the silicon industry in its youth is that of ‘defect engineering’. This article is concerned to some extent with the general problem of defectivity in silicon wafers and the implications of the chain of complexity which springs from this, and runs from crystal growth through wafer processing and into device processing.
Robert Falster, MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc.

 Setting Direction for Spares and Service in the 21st Century Future Fab Intl. Volume 12, February 02, 2002
As an industry, we have long realized that there are inefficiencies and opportunities to improve processes within the supply chain. Consequently, the desire to improve communications and supply chain efficiencies within the semiconductor industry has led the Spares and Service Committee to introduce it’s activities to the semiconductor industry. This article describes the Committee’s mission, vision and purpose, and explains the benefits derived from its activities. This article also highlights recent accomplishments and key areas of opportunity for improving the process for spares and field service management. The Spares and Service Committee is currently working with many OEM to define expectations and mutually beneficial solutions for these issues and concerns.
Steve McGovern, International SEMATECH, Tim Meuret, Intel Corporation

 The Requirements for Successful 300mm Wafer Reclaim Future Fab Intl. Volume 12, February 02, 2002
The driver for a fab to use wafer reclaim is of course the cost saving benefits. However, with cost benefits received through reclaim there can be downsides. For any semiconductor manufacturer who sends wafers outside of their fab and then receives them back in line is taking on a risk. As with all consumables and equipment used in semiconductor processing there has to be a certainty that the wafers on return will not contaminate their line. This risk cannot be ignored, as the consequences are extreme. The first question any wafer reclaimer or potential customer has to answer is how the risk is mitigated.
Michael T. Tucker, Texas Instruments Incorporated, David Lewis, Purewafer

 CMP Pads Shift Gears: A Shift from Pads as Consumables to Pads as Technology Enablers Future Fab Intl. Volume 11, June 29, 2001
New processes are continuously being developed and implemented to create faster (thinner) gates, tighter device-to-device isolation, and smaller device geometries. Lithographic technology determines the smallest images and resultant device geometries that can be produced on a chip, but as the images shrink, the image depth of focus similarly shrinks. Thus, one can create better defined and controlled lithographic images on flat surfaces. Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP), a key enabling process technology first developed in the mid-1980s, is necessary to produce nearly flat surfaces for lithography as well as many of the structures used in current and future devices. CMP is used to produce shallow trench isolations (for tighter device to device spacing), capacitors, and to planarize insulators that conformally coat conductors.
Thomas E West, Thomas West

 Copper and STI CMP Technology: The Challenges and the Cost Future Fab Intl. Volume 11, June 29, 2001
Selection of consumables to be used for a given CMP application has historically required picking a pad, conditioning disk and slurry from a limited pool of choices. Inherently, this led to minimal variation in process consumables sets being used, regardless of CMP platform. With the advent of copper polishing and more stringent requirements on STI polishing, increased complexity and sequencing of consumables has enabled performance advances. CMP consumables are different depending on the application of the polish process.
William. R. Morrison, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Somit Joshi, Texas Instruments Incorporated, Robert Tolles, Applied Materials

 Filtration of Alumina-based Slurry for Tungsten CMP Future Fab Intl. Volume 11, June 29, 2001

Holly Linkowich, Filterite Electronics

 Mass Flow Research and Standards: NOST Workshop Results Future Fab Intl. Volume 10, July 01, 2001

Robert F Berg, National Institute of Standards and Technology, David S Green, National Institute of Standards and Technology, George E Mattingly, National Institute of Standards and Technology

 The Control of Vacuum Transducers: Intrumentation and Procedures Future Fab Intl. Volume 10, July 01, 2001

Fabio Somboli, Segibo

 A New Approach to PFC Emission Monitoring: Non-Dispersive Infrared Photometry Future Fab Intl. Volume 9, January 07, 2000
Perfluorocompounds (PFC) have been used in the semiconductor industry as a fluorine source for device and chamber dry etch applications since the Eighties. At that time the advantages of the PFCs over hydrofluoric acid – in terms of purity, process performance and toxic potential – were convincing. However, in the early Nineties it became clear that PFCs have an impact on the global ecological system that is as serious as the one of chlorofluorocompounds (CFC), which in the meantime are banned in most industrialized countries.
E Kopatzki, CS Clean Systems, J Wiechers, CS Clean Systems, R Riesenburg, Insitut für Physikalische Hochtechnologie

 Cost Considerations in Liquid Chemical Purity Trends Future Fab Intl. Volume 9, January 07, 2000

Elizabeth Schumann, SEMI

 Missing Critical Capabilities in MFCs needed to allow Advanced Process Control Future Fab Intl. Volume 9, January 07, 2000

WW White, FuGasity Corporation

 Using Digital Mass Flow Controllers in a Modern Fab: Examples of applications in R2 fab (Central R&D STM), Agrate, Italy Future Fab Intl. Volume 9, January 07, 2000

Fabio Somboli, Segibo

 Characterization of Etch Exhaust By-products of FTIR and QMS for Alternative Chemistry and Plasma Abatement Applications Future Fab Intl. Volume 8, July 01, 2000

Victor Vartanian, International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative

 Future Trends in Ultrapure Water Future Fab Intl. Volume 8, July 01, 2000

Leo Meire, White Oak Semiconductor

 Reshaping the Gases and Chemicals Supply Industry for Optimized Value Addition in Electronics Manufacturing Future Fab Intl. Volume 8, July 01, 2000

Jean M Friedt, Air Liquide Electronics Europe