About the Annealing and growth facilities
We host a range of annealing and growth equipment which can be used in fabrication processes. These include:
- anneal furnaces for silicon and other clean processes
- low temperature anneal furnace for alloying of metal contacts
- rapid thermal processors (RTP) for very thin silicon dioxide layers
Annealing
High temperature annealing is used in:
- the repair of implantation damage
- densification of deposited insulators
- the diffusion of dopants
- silicide formation.
The most common anneal method uses a furnace at a high temperature for 30 minutes or more. However, a rapid thermal annealer can be used where shorter anneals are needed to minimise dopant diffusion.
Growth
Growth of silicon dioxide is carried out using thermal oxidation, either in a dry or a wet ambient. Dry oxidation is used for the highest quality oxides, such as gate oxides. Wet oxidation is used for thicker oxides, such as a field oxide in complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.
For applications where a silicon dioxide layer needs to be produced at a lower temperature, then plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) can be used. This is available as part of our deposition facilities.
The annealing and growth capabilities are part of our clean rooms at the nanofabrication centre.
