Modeling of Thermal Oxidation and Stress Effects

Thermal Oxidation is one of the most important
process steps in semiconductor fabrication to produce
high quality isolation layers. A chemical reaction
converts silicon into silicon dioxide which has more
than twice of the original volume. This is the main
source for stress and displacements in the oxidized
structure.
Stress in copper interconnects can be essential for
the life time of an integrated circuit, because it
can support material transport and lead to void
formation.
During the fabrication of sensors, where thin film
deposition is often used, an intrinsic stress is
generated in the layers which can cause unwanted
deformation in free standing structures.
After an introduction the author describes the
advanced oxidation model and shows by means of
pictures the verified simulation results. A highlight
of this book is the chapter about the Finite Element
Method (FEM) which is used to solve the mathematical
formulation numerically. In a comprehensible way the
author describes how to apply FEM in practice, so
that the reader of this book should be able to
discretize many other kinds of differential equations
and solve them with a computer, which is basic for
simulation.

Autorentext

The author Dr. Christian Hollauer studied electrical engineering at the Technical University Vienna where he received the degree of Diplom-Ingenieur and Doctor respectively. From April 2002 until October 2006 he was research assistant at the Institute for Microelectronics where he worked on modeling and simulation of semiconductor processes.

Klappentext

Thermal Oxidation is one of the most important process steps in semiconductor fabrication to produce high quality isolation layers. A chemical reaction converts silicon into silicon dioxide which has more than twice of the original volume. This is the main source for stress and displacements in the oxidized structure. Stress in copper interconnects can be essential for the life time of an integrated circuit, because it can support material transport and lead to void formation. During the fabrication of sensors, where thin film deposition is often used, an intrinsic stress is generated in the layers which can cause unwanted deformation in free standing structures. After an introduction the author describes the advanced oxidation model and shows by means of pictures the verified simulation results. A highlight of this book is the chapter about the Finite Element Method (FEM) which is used to solve the mathematical formulation numerically. In a comprehensible way the author describes how to apply FEM in practice, so that the reader of this book should be able to discretize many other kinds of differential equations and solve them with a computer, which is basic for simulation.