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Method semiconductor etching as it happens - Self Calibrating Watches Manufacturer by e55he swrzsnb
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Method semiconductor etching as it happens - Self Calibrating Watches Manufacturer by E55HE SWRZSNB
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| Article Posted: 10/22/2013 |
| Article Views: 232 |
| Articles Written: 2033 - MORE ARTICLES FROM THIS AUTHOR |
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Method semiconductor etching as it happens - Self Calibrating Watches Manufacturer |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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University of Illinois researchers have a new low-cost method tocarve delicate features onto semiconductor wafers using light andwatch as it happens. "You can use light to image the topography and you can use light tosculpture the topography," says electrical and computer engineeringprofessor Gabriel Popescu. "It could change the future ofsemiconductor etching." Chip makers and semiconductor researchers need to very preciselycontrol the dimensions of their devices. The dimensions of thecomponents affect performance, speed, error rate, and time tofailure. Semiconductors are commonly shaped by etching with chemicals.Etching errors, such as residual layers, can affect the ability tofurther process and etch as well as hamper device performance.Thus, researchers use time-consuming and costly processes to ensureprecise etching for some applications, to within a scant fewnanometers.
The Illinois researchers' new technique can monitor asemiconductor's surface as it is etched, in real time, withnanometer resolution. It uses a special type of microscope thatuses two beams of light to very precisely measure topography. "The idea is that the height of the structure can be determined asthe light reflects off the different surfaces," says electrical andcomputer engineering professor Lynford Goddard, who co-led thegroup with Popescu. "Looking at the change in height, you figureout the etch rate. What this allows us to do is monitor it whileit's etching.
It allows us to figure out the etch rate both acrosstime and across space, because we can determine the rate at everylocation within the semiconductor wafer that's in our field ofview." The new method is faster, lower in cost, and less noisy than thewidely used methods of atomic force microscopy or scanningtunneling microscopy, which cannot monitor etching in progress butonly compare before and after measurements. In addition, the newmethod is purely optical, so there's no contact with thesemiconductor surface and the researchers can monitor the wholewafer at once instead of point-by-point. "I would say the main advantage of our optical technique is that itrequires no contact," Popescu says. "We're just sending light,reflected off the sample, as opposed to an AFM where you need tocome with a probe close to the sample." In addition to monitoring the etching process, the light catalyzesthe etching process itself, called photochemical etching.Traditional chemical etching creates features in steps or plateaus.For curved surfaces or other shapes, semiconductor researchers usephotochemical etching. Usually, light shines through very expensiveglass plates called masks that have distinct patterns of gray tolet light through by degrees.
A researcher must purchase or make amask for each tweak of a pattern until the correct pattern offeatures is achieved. By contrast, the new method uses a projector to shine a grayscaleimage onto the sample being etched. This allows the researchers tocreate complex patterns quickly and easily, and adjust them asneeded. "To create each mask is very expensive. That's impractical forresearch," Goddard says.
"Because our technique is controlled bythe computer, it can be dynamic. So you can start off etching oneparticular shape, midway through realize that you want to make somechange, and then change the projector pattern to get the desiredoutcome." The researchers envision this technology applied beyond etching, toreal-time monitoring of other processes in materials science andlife science for example, watching carbon nanotubes self-assemble,or error monitoring during large-scale computer chip manufacturing.It could help chip manufacturers reduce costs and processing timeby ensuring that equipment stays calibrated.
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