S.No

Topics

No. of Hours

1

Introduction:

overview of Chip Manufacturing Process, FEOL and BEOL concepts.

1

2

PhotoLithography:

1. Lithography basics, layout, hierarchy vs flat file, levels and layers in layout file.

2. Mask making with e-beam, alignment and test structures in masks.

2

3

Lithography details:

1. Projection printing, dark field mask, positive resist and its advantages.

2. Process details including resist coating, pre-exposure bake, exposure, soft bake, developing and hard bake.

3. Stepper vs scanner.

2

4

Advanced Lithography; Resolution, numerical aperture, optical proximity correction (OPC), anti reflective coating (ARC), phase shift mask (PSM).

2

5

Production issues: Depth of focus, focus exposure matrix, misalignment, partial field vs full field, next generation litho (Extreme UV, XRay).

2

6

Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) basics, equipment description and operation details, RF/magnetron sputtering, long throw, ionized metal plasma (IMP) sputtering, collimated beam, sputtering yield.

2

7

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) basics, Atmospheric pressure (APCVD), low pressure (LPCVD), plasma enhanced (PECVD), mass transfer control and reaction kinetics control.

Reactor description and operation, deposition of silicon, poly silicon, oxide, nitride and tungsten, brief introduction to atomic layer deposition (ALD) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE).

2

8

Electrochemical deposition, Electro-migration vs grain size, conformal, anti conformal and super fill.

Suppressor, accelerator, levelers, effect of seed layer, spin on coating.

2

9

Wet etching:

1. Isotropic etch, selectivity, anisotropic Si etch in KOH, cleaning, micro loading and process proximity correction (ppc).

2. Chemicals for oxide and nitride removal, effect of dopants, photoresist development.

2

10

Dry etching :

1. Plasma, anisotropic etch, equipment details and operation.

2. Reactive ion etching (RIE), veil formation and de-veil, electrostatic discharge (ESD), aluminum etch.

2

11

Chemical Mechanical planarization (CMP) basics, Dishing, Erosion, Issues in Shallow Trench Isolation.

Oxide Polish and Copper Polish, Dummy fill, slotting.

2

12

FEOL:

Semiconductor electron band structure, band gap MOS capacitor, MOS transistor structure for enhancement mode devices.

2

13

MOS transistor operation: I-V curve, pinch off, hot carrier effect, lightly doped drain (LDD), scaling.

2

14

Diffusion :

Junction depth, Concentration profile, interstitial and substitutional diffusion.

Constant source and limited source diffusion, dopant redistribution, Lateral diffusion, Rapid thermal annealing, Gettering.

2

15

Ion implantation :

Detailed Equipment description, ion source, analyzer, accelerator, scanning, target chamber, elastic and inelastic collisions, transverse straggle, channeling and methods to prevent channeling.

2

16

Oxidation:

1. Native oxide, Wet and dry oxidation, Electro-chemical oxidation, solubility and diffusion of various species in oxide.

2. Deal-Grove model, exponential growth regime, Effect of doping.

2

17

Process Integration:

BEOL Issues, Cu vs Al metallization, oxide vs low-k integration.

3

18

Testing:

Scribe line Test (for process evaluation), Functional Test (for product evaluation), Optical testing (KLA).

2

19

Yield Models, process and design modifications for yield optimization.

2

20

Tools and Techniques:

SEM, FIB, AFM, Ellipsometry.

2