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Source: SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING HANDBOOK

CHAPTER 3

SILICON SUBSTRATES
FOR SEMICONDUCTOR

MANUFACTURING

K. V. Ravi
Intel Corporation
Santa Clara, California

3.1 INTRODUCTION

The exponential growth of semiconductor electronics based on silicon technology is well known.
A fundamental factor that has enabled this remarkable evolution of the technology and the inex-
orable progression of Moore’s law is a result of the unique properties of silicon.
In this chapter an overview of silicon substrate technology will be presented. Following a brief
discussion of the key properties of silicon, which make it the preeminent semiconductor material, the
approaches for the manufacture of silicon wafers will be reviewed.
A discussion of various semiconductor substrates, either currently in use or contemplated to be
used to extend Moore’s law, will form the major portion of the chapter. Silicon wafers or substrates
are most commonly used as active semiconductors in which electronic devices of various kinds are
manufactured. An increasing trend is the use of silicon substrates as passive or semipassive materi-
als, not participating electronically in the functioning of devices or circuits, but functioning as low-
cost, high-volume substrates for either silicon films or other semiconducting, optical, mechanical, or
magnetic materials. This is likely to be an increasing trend in the future where high-cost materials
that are not easily manufactured as large area substrates are mated with silicon substrates using inno-
vative wafer bonding or hetroepitaxial technologies. Such approaches may also be utilized in com-
bining the electronic functions of silicon with, for example, optical functions of optoelectronic
materials such as gallium arsenide or indium phosphide.

3.2 KEY ATTRIBUTES OF SILICON AS A SUBSTRATE MATERIAL

Silicon enjoys a number of unequalled properties and characteristics that have made it the pervasive
semiconductor material. While an exhaustive discussion of these characteristics would not be appro-
priate in this brief review, the major characteristics of silicon are briefly reviewed.

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