FABRICATION

of
MOSFETs
CMOS fabrication sequence
-p-type silicon substrate wafer
-creation of n-well regions for pMOS
transistors,
-impurity implantation into the substrate.
-thick oxide is grown in the regions
-surrounding the nMOS and pMOS active
regions.
-creation of n+ and p+ regions
-final metallization & interconnects.
 CMOS Process

PMOS transistors created in an n-well

Typically substrate has lower doping on
the surface
 Fabrication
Patterning of
SiO2
Grow SiO2 on Si by
exposing to O2
high temperature accelerates
this process
Cover surface with
photoresist (PR)
Sensitive to UV light
(wavelength determines
feature size)
Positive PR becomes soluble
after exposure
Negative PR becomes
insoluble after exposure
 Fabrication
Patterning of
SiO2

PR removed with a
solvent
SiO2 removed by
etching (HF)
Remaining PR
removed with another
solvent
Summary

The result of a
single lithographic
patterning sequence
on silicon dioxide,
without showing the
intermediate steps.
unpatterned
structure (top)
patterned structure
(bottom)
Fabrication
of nMOS
Transistor
Thick field oxide
grown
Field oxide
etched to create
area for
transistor
Gate oxide (high
quality) grown
Fabrication of NMOS Transistor

Polysilicon deposited (doped to reduce R)

Polysilicon etched to form gate
Gate oxide etched from source and drain
Self-aligned process because source/drain aligned by
gate
Si doped with donors to create n+ regions
 NMOS Transistor Fabrication

Insulating SiO2 grown to cover surface/gate

Source/Drain regions opened
Aluminum evaporated to cover surface
Aluminum etched to form metal1 interconnects
Metallization
 Device Isolation Techniques
To prevent unwanted conduction
To avoid creation of inversion layers
outside channel regions
To reduce leakage currents

devices are made into Active areas

Surrounded by field oxide (thick oxide barrier)
 CMOS n-well
process
P-type substrate
n-well region for PMOS
thin gate oxide is grown on
top of the active regions
thick field oxide is grown in
the areas surrounding the
transistor active regions
gate oxide thickness and
quality affect the
operational characteristics
of the MOS transistor and
reliability.
-polysilicon layer
-deposited by
chemical vapor
deposition (CVD)
-patterned by
etching.
-polysilicon lines
will function as the
gate of MOS
- act as self-
aligned masks for
source and drain
 Masks
n+ and p+
regions
implanted in
its locations
ohmic
contacts to
substrate and
to n-well
Contacts to Silicon needs to
Be through heavily doped regions
To avoid them as junctions
 Metal (aluminum)
is deposited over
the entire chip
surface using
metal evaporation,
and the metal lines
are patterned
through etching.
Since the wafer
surface is non-
planar, the quality
and the integrity of
the metal lines
created in this step
are very critical
and are ultimately
essential for circuit
reliability
 Complete
mask sequence applied to create desired structures
 Inverter Fabrication

Inverter
Logic symbol
CMOS inverter circuit
CMOS inverter layout (top view of lithographic masks)
 Inverter layout
GND In VD D

A A

Out

(a) Layout

A A
n
p-substrate Field
+ + Oxide
n p
(b) Cross-Section along A-A
 Inverter Fabrication

N-wells created
Thick field oxide grown surrounding active
regions
Thin gate oxide grown over active regions
 Inverter Fabrication

Polysilicon deposited
Chemical vapor deposition
Dry plasma etch
 Inverter Fabrication

N+ and P+ regions created using two

masks
Source/Drain regions
Substrate contacts
 Inverter Fabrication

Insulating SiO2 deposited using CVD

Source/Drain/Substrate contacts exposed
 Inverter Fabrication

Metal (Al) deposited using evaporation

Metal patterned by etching
 Layout Design Rules
specify
minimum allowable widths for physical objects
e.g. metal and polysilicon interconnects or
diffusion areas. For the line not to break
minimum feature dimensions. To avoid open
circuit
minimum allowable separations between two
such features. To avoid unwanted short circuit

main objective
To increase possibility of successful product
 Design rules
Micron rules
Effitient Layout
Non-Scalable, non-transfareble to other
technology
Lambda () rules
Scalled to any technology
Ineffetient layout: depends on worst case
can make design bigger than needed
 Lambda ()
Is the integer fraction half the
minimum fabrication feature size of
technology.
1m technology = 0.5 m
Assume W=3 and L= 2
= 0.5 m W=1.5 m & L =1 m
= 0.3 m W=.9 m & L =.6 m
Even if technology can give 0.5 m, L = 0.6 m because of rules
 Lambda () Rules
R1 Minimum active area width 3
R2 Minimum active area spacing 3
R3 Minimum poly width 2
R4 Minimum poly spacing 2
R5 Minimum gate extension of poly over
active 2
R6 Minimum poly-active edge spacing 1
(poly outside active area)
R7 Minimum poly-active edge spacing 3
(poly inside active area)
R8 Minimum metal width 3
R9 Minimum metal spacing 3
R10 Poly contact size 2
R11 Minimum poly contact spacing 2
R12 Minimum poly contact to poly edge
spacing 1
R13 Minimum poly contact to metal edge
spacing 1
R14 Minimum poly contact to active
edge spacing 3
R15 Active contact size 2
R16 Minimum active contact spacing 2
(on the same active region)
R17 Minimum active contact to active
edge spacing 1
R18 Minimum active contact to metal
edge spacing 1
R19 Minimum active contact to poly
edge spacing 3
R20 Minimum active contact spacing 6
(on different active regions)
Stick diagrams showing various
CMOS inverter layout options