INTRODUCTION - Chapter 1 in the Text

• Course is About Silicon Technologies Used To Manufacture ICs or Chips.• IC consists of a large number of components, fabricated side by side in a common substrate and wired together to perform a particular ckt function.

• Since its invention 48 years ago, IC has literally changed the world.

• 1960 IC (4 Trans.) and 1990 IC (over million trans).• Progress due to: Feature size reduction - 0.7X/3 years (Moore’s Law).

Increasing chip size - ≈ 16% per year. “Creativity” in implementing functions.

Historical Perspective

• Invention of the bipolar transistor - 1947, Bell Labs.

• Shockley’s “creative failure” methodology

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• Grown junction transistor technology of the 1950s

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• Alloy junction technology of the 1950s.

• Double diffused transistor technology of the 1950s.

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Substrate

Film deposition Photoresist application

Deposited Film Photoresist

Exposure

Development Etching Resist removal

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• The planar process (Hoerni - Fairchild, late 1950s).

• Basic lithography process which is central to today’s chip fabrication.

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• Lithographic process allows integration of multiple devices side by side on a wafer.

• Schematic cross-section of a modern silicon IC. Wafer > 500 um thickTop Layers ~ 1 um or less

Summary of Key Ideas

• ICs are widely regarded as one of the key components of the information age.

• Basic inventions between 1945 and 1970 laid the foundation for today's silicon industry.

• Silicon technology has become a basic “toolset” for many areas of science and engineering.

• For more than 40 years, "Moore's Law" (a doubling of chip complexity every 2-3 years) has held true.

• CMOS has become the dominant circuit technology because of its low DC power consumption, high performance and flexible design options. Future projections suggest these trends will continue at least 15 more years.

• Chapter 1 also contains some review information on semiconductor materials semiconductor devices. These topics will be useful in later chapters of the text.