Technical Notes

Polysilicon thin films are produced using a process known as chemical vapor deposition or CVD. Heavily doped polysilicon and poly-silicide films have been used as gate electrodes and …

Epitaxy is defined as the "regularly oriented growth of one crystalline substance on another". Both homoepitaxy and heteroepitaxy processes are used in semiconductor device fabrica …

Compound semiconductors are materials such as GaAs, AlGaAs, GaN, CdSe, InP, InSb, etc. These materials combine the elements from equidistant columns on either side of Column IVA of …

Thermal SiO2 films for device components can be formed in a variety of ways; the selection of method is dependent on such factors as substrate composition/topography and the thermal …

In semiconductor device fabrication, contacts are the metal components in direct contact with silicon in transistors and other devices, while interconnects are the current-carrying …

In simple terms, vacuum may be defined as: A space or container from which the air has been completely or partially removed.

An in-depth understanding of the creation of vacuum requires consideration for physical characteristics such as gas viscosity, flow type, the thermal conductivity of the gas, and gas …

The first true pressure measurement was made by Evangelista Torricelli in the 17th Century, when he invented the mercury barometer and measured atmospheric pressure.

The Pirani gauge's sensing element is a wire of known resistance and known temperature coefficient of resistance.

UHV and XHV pressure measurements are routinely performed using ionization gauges configured as either hot cathode gauges (HCGs) or cold cathode gauges (CCGs).

Spinning rotor gauges (SRGs) also known as molecular drag or viscosity gauges, measure the number density of the surrounding gas.

The capacitance gauge translates a pressure-modulated movement in a thin diaphragm into an electrical signal proportional to the pressure.

Chemical vapor deposition processes can be defined as: any process in which a thin solid film is formed on a substrate by the surface-mediated reaction of adsorbed precursors from the …

Semiconductor fabrication utilities include ultrapure water, bulk high purity gases such as nitrogen and argon, exhaust gas handling and disposal, and cleanroom air systems.

This technical note provides a basic familiarity with the design elements and functionalities for UPW systems. We will discuss the main UPW parameters, the treatment sequence for UPW …

A variety of gases are employed for different purposes within a semiconductor device fabrication plant. These gases range from the pyrophoric and/or toxic specialty gases required for …

The process exhaust downstream from the cleaning, deposition and metal etch processes often experiences problems due to fouling often caused by the condensation and build-up of process …

Semiconductor fab environments require ultra-clean conditions to ensure low numbers of product defects due to particulate contamination. A critical aspect in creating an ultra-clean …

The physical mechanism of electrical conduction in solids is best understood using a model that physicists refer to as "band theory", which is based on the idea that the state of an …

Modern RGAs utilize quadrupole mass spectrometry as their underlying operational principle. Quadrupole mass spectrometers can monitor multiple gas-phase species in real-time with a …