Glossary - Semiconductor
A
- Activated annealing
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Category: Process
After injecting impurities (dissimilar elements) into the substrate, to create a semiconductor layer, heat treatment is used to recover the broken crystal structure and electrically activate it.
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- Activation
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Category: Process
Ions implanted in the ion implantation process are inactive because they are not aligned with atomic crystals in the semiconductor. The crystal lattice also needs to be repaired because of crystal defects. Activation is a process of using heat to adjust the crystal lattice and activate these ions.
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- Annealing
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Category: Process
Various heat treatments required in manufacturing semiconductor devices.
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B
- Batch processing
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Category: Applications
A method of placing multiple wafers on a quartz boat or the like and processing them together. This is suitable for producing few items in large quantities. To ensure uniformity in batches, it is necessary to use a technology that maintains uniform gas and temperature distribution.
C
- Compound semiconductor
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Category: Applications
Semiconductor material composed of a combination of multiple elements of groups III–V and II–VI in the periodic table such as GaAs, GaN, CdTe, and SiC.
- Contact annealing
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Category: Process
When a metal is in contact with a semiconductor, a Schottky barrier diode may form, resulting in current flow only in one direction. Heat treatment is required to alloy the contact surface so the current flows in both directions.
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This situation is called an ohmic contact.
- Curing
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Category: Process
Curing means that a polymerization reaction of a monomer or cross-linking reaction of a polymer is promoted by some action (heat, chemical additives, light, etc.). The monomer or polymer is then said to be cured.
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D
- Dehydrogenation(for FPD)
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Category: Process
In the LTPS (low-temperature polycrystalline silicon) process, an a-Si film is formed, laser annealing is performed, and the film is poly-siliconized. Heat treatment is done to reduce the hydrogen component concentration before laser annealing because of damage to the film by the hydrogen component contained in the a-Si layer.
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F
- Fan-out Wafer
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Category: Workpieces
Resin substrate handled in the FOWLP (fan-out wafer level package) manufacturing process. FOWLP is a generic term for packages that form a rewiring layer outside the chip size. It can be used to downsize/thin a package compared to traditional packages.
- FPD
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Category: Applications
FPD is an abbreviation for Flat Panel Display. Thin displays such as organic EL (OLED) or liquid crystal displays.
- Frit firing(for FPD)
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Category: Process
A method of kneading the glass particles, resin, solvent, etc. to produce a glass paste, coat the substrate with this glass paste by printing method, and then fire it. Used for joining, sealing, and coating the electronic components.
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G
- GaAs wafer
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Category: Workpieces
Wafer using a compound composed of gallium (Ga) and arsenic (As) as the material. Compared to silicon, it has lower strength and is more expensive, but because of its high electron mobility, it can be used to produce high-speed semiconductor devices with low power consumption. Also used for the substrate in LEDs and lasers.
- Gettering
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Category: Process
Some impurities in the substrate may have adverse effects on LSI performance. This method uses the crystal characteristics, etc. of the substrate to collect these impurities.
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H
- Heavy Gauge Coil Heater
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Category: Equipment-related
Heater with excellent high-temperature durability using a combination of a heavy-gauge coil and spacer. Ideal for applications with repeated high temperature treatment up to 1250°C, such as diffusion furnaces.
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- High Temperature Oxide
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Category: Process
Oxide film used as a gate oxide layer that is formed under low pressure at high temperature (about 900°C) by using dichlorosilane (SiH2Cl2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) gases as raw materials.
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- Horizontal Furnace
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Category: Equipment-related
A furnace with a horizontal chamber such as a quartz glass tube, where multiple silicon wafers for semiconductors, solar batteries and the like can be bulk-processed for heat treatment at high temperature or to deposit any film on the wafer.
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I
- IGBT
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Category: Applications
Abbreviation for Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor. A type of power semiconductor. Its input has a MOSFET structure and its output has a bipolar structure. It is characterized by a relatively high switching speed and low on-resistance.
- Impurity diffusion
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Category: Process
A method of diffusing impurities such as phosphorus and boron by heating the silicon, a process generally called heat diffusion. This method is also called ion implantation because the impurities are ionized directly and implanted into the wafers. In this case, activating annealing is required after ion implantation. Both methods are often used to form PN junctions.
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L
- Lamp Anneal
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Category: Equipment-related
Heat treatment system that uses light such as from halogen lamps as a heating source. Since it only heats the workpiece and not the atmosphere, treatments with rapid temperature rises and falls can be processed.
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- Large Bore Vertical Furnace
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Category: Equipment-related
Baking furnace developed for large-scale glass substrate annealing in the FPD field. The glass substrate size is 2.5 generations or more. With a structure following that of vertical furnaces for semiconductor devices, a glass substrate is installed inside a large quartz glass tube and then heated at high temperature to achieve any annealing treatment.
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- Light Gauge Over-bend Heater
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Category: Equipment-related
Heaters that use light-gauge wires for heating elements that are integrated with ceramic fiber thermal insulating materials into a solid structure using our unique vacuum forming process. Since only a small amount of heat is stored, they can be controlled with high precision even at low temperatures and when temperatures rapidly rise or fall, and have excellent temperature following.
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- Low stress Silicon Nitride
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Category: Process
Since silicon nitride film is generally under high stress, cracks and warping can occur. Therefore, a nitride film is used for reduced stress. Used for relaxing film stress in MEMS (micro electro-mechanical systems) and other devices.
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- Low Temperature Oxide
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Category: Process
A type of LPCVD.
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It uses SiH4 and O2 as raw materials to form an oxide film at low temperature (about 400°C) under reduced pressure. Used as an interlayer insulating film, etc.
- Low Temperature Wet Oxidation
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Category: Process
A method of inserting a wafer for a compound semiconductor such as GaAs into the quartz tube heated at a relatively low temperature of 500°C or less, inject the steam into the tube, and then oxidize the wafer. Used for the aperture forming process of VCSEL.
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- LPCVD
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Category: Process
Abbreviation for Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition. A method of depositing and forming the polysilicon (poly-Si) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) films under a low pressure of tens of Pa.
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M
- MEMS
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Category: Applications
MEMS is an abbreviation for Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems. Device where fine mechanical structures and electronic circuits of micron order are manufactured on the silicon and glass. Recently, there is also a multi-chip type module that combines the mechanical structure and electronic circuit.
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- Molybdenum disilicide Heater
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Category: Equipment-related
Using molybdenum disilicide as a heating element, it is ideal for applications with repeated high temperature treatment up to 1400°C. It has excellent heat resistance properties and enables rapid heating.
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N
- N2 Load Lock
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Category: Equipment-related
N2 purge chamber installed in the substrate transfer area. It is used to reduce the concentration of oxygen and moisture in the atmosphere when the substrate is transferred into and removed from this chamber to suppress formation of a natural oxide film.
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O
- Organic Light Emitting Diode
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Category: Applications
An OLED is a device composed of a series of organic thin films between two conductors and emits light in response to an electric current. Because it emits light spontaneously, it does not need a backlight. It is also thinner and consumes less power than an LCD.
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- Ormic Contact
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Category: Applications
A contact interface with the characteristic that regardless of the current direction or voltage magnitude, the resistance value does not change, and the relationship between the voltage, current, and resistance follows Ohm's law. For example, the electrodes of semiconductor devices such as transistors, diodes, and ICs are ohmic contacts.
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- Oven
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Category: Equipment-related
A general term for heat treatment equipment. In our equipment, it refers to hot air circulation-type heating equipment.
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- Oxynitride
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Category: Process
A method of using NO or N2O to form a thin film of SiON. It helps improve the interface level by introducing nitrogen into the interface of the gate oxidation film.
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P
- P-Doped Poly-Si
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Category: Process
A polysilicon film with N-type attribute obtained by injecting phosphine (PH3) gas and doped phosphorus when depositing polysilicon. Used for making contact with the electrode wiring.
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- POA(Post Oxidation Anneal)
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Category: Process
Annealing performed for the purpose of reforming the MOS interface after the main oxidation process when forming the gate oxide film of the MOSFET.
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- Polymide
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Category: Applications
Polyimide is a generic term for imide-containing polymers. It has heat resistance and chemical resistance and is used for industrial applications in harsh environments. For example, it is used for protective film and insulating material for semiconductors, fibers for protective clothing, and heat-resistant tape.
- Polymide curing
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Category: Process
A method of heating a polyimide film for use as a protective film or insulating material for a semiconductor at about 200°C to 400°C and curing it.
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- Poly-Si
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Category: Process
Film deposited and formed by using monosilane (SiH4) gas under low pressure at high temperature (about 650°C). Often used for gate electrodes.
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- Power semiconductor
Power Device -
Category: Applications
A power semiconductor is a semiconductor that performs electrical tasks such as insulation, conductivity, amplification, rectification, and frequency conversion. Recently, SiC and GaN are being used as next-generation materials for reducing power loss at higher voltages.
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- Pyrogenic oxideation
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Category: Process
A method of thermal oxidation that uses water vapor generated in the combustion of hydrogen and oxygen to form an oxide film on a semiconductor material such as silicon.
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R
- Rapid Cooling
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Category: Equipment-related
System for sending air to the heater with a blower fan and force cooling the furnace in order to rapidly cool the interior of the furnace.
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- Research and development(R&D)
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Category: Applications
Activities that explore the development of both accumulated and new technologies to find new value looking to the years ahead.
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S
- Saphire wafer
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Category: Workpieces
Sapphire is a transparent material with high hardness, corrosion resistance, and heat resistance. It is used for optical devices such as LEDs and semiconductor lasers.
- Semiconductor manufacturing process/Back end
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Category: Applications
This is also called the packaging process. Process where IC chips produced in the previous step are separated from the wafer, and processed with rewiring (such as wire bonding) and resin sealing to produce an IC package.
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- Semiconductor manufacturing process/Front end
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Category: Applications
Also called the wafer processing step. In the process of forming a semiconductor device on the wafer surface, several methods of heat treatment are used such as oxidation, diffusion, and CVD.
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- Si wafer
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Category: Workpieces
Wafer cut from an ingot of high-purity silicon. It forms the base for a semiconductor. Heat treatment equipment can be used to introduce impurities into it at high temperature and form an insulating film to produce semiconductor elements (IC and LSI).
- SiC wafer
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Category: Workpieces
Wafer cut from an ingot of SiC. It is often used for power semiconductors and operates at higher temperature and higher speed than silicon alone. Its manufacturing method is more difficult and expensive than that of silicon.
- Silicon Nitride
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Category: Process
Silicon nitride film, used as a protective film for MEMS. In LPCVD, a film is often formed by reacting a silane-based gas such as dichlorosilane (SiH2Cl2) with ammonia (NH3) gas at high temperature under a low pressure of tens of Pa.
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- Single wafer processing
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Category: Applications
A processing method in which one process is performed on only one substrate compared to batch processing where tens of substrates are processed in bulk. This is suitable for lines that produce small quantities of many kinds in a short period of time. Also, since substrates are processed one by one, detailed control is possible. In processes requiring rapid temperature rise and fine atmosphere control, single wafer processing is required even on batch lines.
- Sintering/Alloying
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Category: Process
An annealing treatment performed after sputtering a metal film such as aluminum. This treatment is often performed in a hydrogen atmosphere, and is done in order to alloy the contact surface with silicon and obtain an ohmic contact.
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- Solar cell / Solar Module / Photovoltaic power generation
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Category: Applications
An energy conversion element that utilizes sunlight and the photovoltaic effect to convert light energy into electric power. It is made with semiconductors that include mainly silicon. Others include CIGS compound solar batteries using Cu, In, Ga, Se and S, and CdTe solar batteries.
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T
- Tetraethoxysilane
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Category: Process
Used when depositing SiO2 in LPCVD. Because it is a liquid material, a special vaporizer is needed.
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It is characterized by fluidity and excellent coverage.
- Thermal oxideation
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Category: Process
A method of exposing a semiconductor material such as a silicon wafer at high temperature in an oxidizing atmosphere such as oxygen or water vapor to form an oxide film. The method includes dry oxidation and pyrogenic oxidation.
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- Thin wafer
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Category: Applications
A wafer thinner than the thickness specified by the SEMI standard, Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS), and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) for each wafer diameter. Often used for power devices.
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V
- Vertical Cavitiy Surface emitting Laser
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Category: Applications
Vertical cavity (or resonator)-type surface-emitting laser. This is commonly called a VCSEL. Unlike the conventional horizontal resonator type, voltage can be applied to chips in the wafer state, laser inspection of products can be performed with less mirror loss due to laser oscillation, and it features low power consumption. Also, it enables multi-beam synthesis of two-dimensional arrays.
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- Vertical Furnace
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Category: Equipment-related
A furnace with a vertical chamber such as a quartz glass tube, where multiple silicon wafers for semiconductors and the like can be bulk-processed for heat treatment at high temperature or to deposit any film on the wafer.
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