Alex Usenko

Corning's proprietary Silicon-on-Glass (SiOG) technology comprises two major processes – the wafer bonding and the layer transfer. Both processes govern the quality of the transferred film. A strong bond between the silicon and the glass substrates is desirable to facilitate the layer transfer process. The bonding energy between two substrates is a crucial measure to gauge the integrity of the wafer bonding and subsequently influences the final film-transfer properties. This work focuses on the characterization of the bonding energy as a function of temperature at the Si/glass interface and attempts to understand the physical/chemical interaction occurring therein. Silicon wafers bonded to various glasses have been characterized. A strong correlation between the bonding energy and the glass surface morphology has been discovered. In hydrophilic silicon-to-silicon wafer bonding, it is known that the bond can be significantly strengthened at a temperature above 200 ºC, and the bon...

Investigations were carried out into the relationships governing the formation of relief patterns on the surface of silicon wafers in treatment by the radiation of gas discharge xenon lamps. The results show that by selecting the irradiation conditions it is possible to ensure the formation of relief patterns on the surface of wafers as a result of local melting and solidification. It is assumed that the patterns form in the areas of defects of single crystal silicon. A qualitative model of the process is proposed. Special features of the distribution, form and density of relief patterns in relation to the properties of silicon are described.

Local melting of Si during treatment by a flash lamp have been investigated. After such treatment a swirl-·picture is observed. Points on swirl--picture are caused by local melting on nuclei. It is shown that the melting nuclei are m1crodefects of A-type.

Types of MEMS devices formed using silicon-on-insulator substrates are reviewed. Advantages of using SOl are summarised. Problems of CMOS-MEMS Integration for smart season are listed. Examples of successful use of SOl to fabricate advanced MEMS are given and future prospects MEMS on SOl are evaluated. SOl is an extlemely versatile starting material for fitbricating micromechanical systems both with and without the inclusion of silicon integrated circuits on a shared substrate. SOl permits a means of structuring starting sandwich materials to provide a highly precise control of several material parametm in addition to peunitting Wlique structures not easy to obtain without SOl technology. The SOl technology referred to in this paper extends beyond using silicon oxide as the dielectric to include customized dielectrics and substrates. We use this broad definition of SOl because that is precisely the direction that this technology will evolve as CMOS and bipolar integrated circuits are...

ABSTRACT We describe for the first time a layer delamination of crystalline silicon layer from silicon wafer along hydrogen platelet layer formed by RF plasma hydrogenation. The process involves first making a buried trap layer. Ion implantation is used to form the layer. The traps are microbubbles of inert or low-soluble gases. Results for argon, helium, and hydrogen implantation are compared. Wafers thus processed with an initial implant to levels below 2x10^16cm^ 2 are then hydrogenated with a RF plasma. During hydrogenation, an atomic hydrogen diffuses into the silicon wafer and collects onto internal surfaces of the microbubbles. Then the hydrogen increases the internal surface of the microbubbles by growing a platelet type extensions to the microbubbles. The extensions grow preferably along the buried layer plane (i.e. plane). Next steps of processing of samples were layer delamination, and post-bonding as in the Smart-cut process. The plasma hydrogenation of trap layer may be used as a step in the process of fabricating of SOI wafers with a very thin top crystalline silicon wafer. Also, implant doses needed to form the microbubble trap layer are much lower than doses of implantation of hydrogen in the Smart-cut (i.e. delamination caused by direct implantation of hydrogen) process. Temperature range of 350^oC to 450^oC during the hydrogenation process allows effectively grow extended hydrogen platelets from microbubbles. Mechanisms of nucleation of platelets as extentions of inert gas microbubbles are suggested.

ABSTRACT Ar^+ ions were implanted into Si(100) at energy ranging from 30 KeV to 200 KeV and dose from 1*10^15 to 1*10^16 cm-2. To avoid amorphization, the samples were thermally insulated and the beam current was maintained high enough (about 3mA/cm^2). After implantation, pieces of these samples were subjected to thermal annealing at temperature ranging from 200¡ãC to 800¡ãC. The evolution of microstructure of these samples were investigated by TEM. In the annealed samples, Argon clusters are found in either 2-D cavities (Nano-cracks) or 3D cavities (bubbles). Then, these samples were processed by H^+ plasma. Nano-cracks and bubbles will help trapping H diffused from the surface. We show that 2D cavities are more effective nucleation sites for hydrogen platelets than 3D cavities. After H+ plasma processing, these samples were annealed again. We can find that crack grows along the direction parallel to the surface.

An attempt is made to improve Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) wafer fabrication process that limits throughput and quality of this method SOI wafers with thickness of the top silicon layer under 25 nm next generations of CMOS technologies is addressed. The key element of PIII is a scalable antenna array for a large area plasma source. SCU proposes the ECR plasma source