Silicon wafer processing involves a series of steps, including wafer implant or masking. This step is necessary to dope wafers creating positive and negative areas on the wafers, which permit or block electric current from entering or leaving through the die. In this article, we will discuss to you the two ways you can dope wafers:
Diffusion is similar to the process of oxidation except that it utilizes a different gas other than silicon. During silicon wafer processing, it is carried out in a furnace with a steady surge of gas flowing over the wafers. This process is not selective, which means that the photoresist and patterning need to be completed before this step. Typical dopants include phosphorous, arsenic, and boron. What's great about using the diffusion process, is that it is capable of handling many wafers at a time.
The only way you’ll be able to understand ion implantation, is, if you equate it with firing a machine gun into a target. In this analogy, the target is the wafer and the bullets are the ion dopants. The difference between ion implantation and diffusion is that diffusion utilizes the natural state of gas to get to where there is no gas, while ion implantation blasts the desired dopant ions into the wafer. The only drawback of using this method is that it can only process a single wafer at a time.
After the ions have been placed into the wafer, whether through diffusion or ion implantation, they need to go through a drive-in process to push the ions deeper into the wafer.
Silicon wafer processing is complex and meticulous, but it is necessary to produce high-quality wafers. At Wafer World, we offer high-quality wafers at a reasonable price. Contact us for inquiries or purchase wafers online!
