Glossary

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Acceptor: An impurity that is introduced to a semiconductor material that affects the conductivity of that element. These elements have 3 electrons in their outer ring and are found in Group III of the periodic table of elements.

Algorithm: A set of rules with a finite number of steps for solving a problem.

Aligner: A processing tool used to transfer lithographic patterns from a photomask to a silicon wafer.

Alignment: The correct positioning of a mask or reticle relative to a wafer.

Aluminum: Metal used in semiconductor processing to form the interconnects between the devices on an integrated circuit chip. Contrast with copper.

Analog: Electric signals that are continuous functions generally reflecting real world phenomena, such as light, sound, and pressure. Contrast with digital.

Angstrom: One ten-billionth of a meter; 10,000 angstroms equal one micron; symbol: Å.

Annealing: Repair of lattice damage and dopant activation after ion implantation by heating the wafer.

Application specific integrated circuit (ASIC): A custom-designed integrated circuit that performs specific functions which would otherwise require a number of off-the-shelf integrated circuits to perform. The use of an ASIC in place of a conventional integrated circuit reduces product size and cost and also improves reliability.

Argon: A chemically inert, colorless, non-toxic gas used in purging, annealing and sputtering applications. Argon is also used as an inert gas in silicon crystal pulling. Argon is monatomic (its molecules have only one atom) and is characterized by its extreme chemical inactivity. Although non-toxic, Argon is heavier than air and will displace oxygen in a confined space.

Arsenic: A semi-metallic solid used for n-type doping in ion implant processes.

Arsine: A highly toxic gas used as a source of arsenic for n-type doping in diffusion and ion implant processes.

Ashing: A method of stripping photoresist using an excited gas such as an oxygen plasma, ozone or hydrogen-containing plasma.

ASP: Average selling price.

Assembly: A step in semiconductor manufacturing in which the integrated circuit is encased in a plastic, ceramic, or other package or assembled directly on a printed circuit board.

Automatic Test Equipment (ATE): Equipment that runs each chip through all functions before shipment.

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Back end: Package, assembly and test stages of manufacturing including burn-in and environmental test functions. Compare front end.

Back end of line (BEOL): Name sometimes given to the last steps in wafer fabrication in which the metal "wiring" levels are formed.

Backside preparation (Backgrinding): The process of mechanically thinning a wafer to remove stress cracks, allow better heat dissipation in the finished device and permit it to fit within thinner packages.

Binary: A system of numeration having 2 as its base. Numbers in the binary system are formed using combinations of 0s and 1s.

Bipolar: A semiconductor manufacturing technology largely supplanted by CMOS.

Bipolar junction transistor (BJT): Transitor that consists of two PN junctions back-to-back.

Bit: Short for 'Binary Digit.' The smallest piece of data (a '1' or '0') that a computer recognizes. Combinations of 1s and 0s are used to represent characters and numbers.

Bond pad: An area on the silicon die for connection to the package pins; small-diameter gold or aluminum wire is bonded to the pad area by a combination of heat and ultrasonic energy.

Bonded wafer: The composite dielectrically isolated substrate formed by high temperature fusing of the oxidized surfaces of two individual silicon substrates.

Bonding: An assembly step of connecting wires from the package leads to the chip (or die) bonding pads; securing a semiconductor die to a lead frame or package.

Book-to-bill: (1) Bookings (orders) to billings (shipments) ratio. (2) A statistic published monthly by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI), a market research firm.

Boolean gate: An integrated circuit that performs Boolean logic with digital input and output.

Bound electron: An electron in an orbital near the atomic nucleus. Contrast with free electron.

Buffered oxide etch (BOE): The process of removing silicon dioxide layer without removing silicon by using a hydrofluoric acid solution buffered with ammonium fluoride. The etch will automatically stop when it reaches the silicon.

Bunny suit: A head-to-foot coverall-type garment worn by fab personnel, usually worn in Class 100 (or cleaner) work areas.

Burn-in: A stress test where the IC is exposed to high temperatures.

Byte: Eight binary bits, that usually represent one numeric or alphabetic character.

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Capacitance: The property of a circuit element that permits it to store charge.

Capacitor: An electric circuit element used to store charge temporarily, consisting in general of two metallic plates separated and insulated from each other by a dielectric.

Chemical mechanical polish/planarization (CMP): The use of a slurry compound to microscopically polish/planzarize the wafer surface.

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD): The process of applying a thin film to a substrate using chemically reactive gasses controlled by temperature and/or formation of a plasma.

Chip: One of the individual integrated circuits on a wafer. Term refers to the "die" or piece of the silicon wafer containing the integrated circuit after the wafer is "diced up."

Circuit: An interconnection of electrical or electronic components to accomplish a specific function.

Cleaning: The removal of undesirable materials from the surface of the wafer without causing damage to the exposed layers. This includes the removal of photoresist and post-etch polymer. Cleaning is performed with both wet and dry cleaning technologies.

Cleanroom: A manufacturing area in which the humidity, temperature, and particle matter are precisely controlled.

Cluster tool: An integrated, environmentally isolated manufacturing system consisting of process, transport, and cassette modules mechanically linked together. The modules may or may not come from the same supplier.

Coat: To cover a substrate surface with a layer of a material, as by dipping, spraying or spinning a photoresist.

Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS): A manufacturing technology allowing more device integration and lower power consumption.

Conductivity: A measure of the ability to conduct or transmit heat, electricity, or sound.

Conductor: Metal material that allows easy flow of electrons.

Contact pad: The large areas in the top metallization layer used for bonding wires to a chip; located on the periphery of the chip.

Contamination: General term used to describe unwanted material that adversely affects the physical or electrical characteristics of a semiconductor wafer.

Copper: Metal that is increasingly being used in semiconductor processing to form the interconnects between the devices on an integrated circuit. Its proponents cite copper’s superior conductivity and reliability over aluminum.

Copper Damascene: Process where vias and trenches are etched into insulating material. Copper is then filled into all the vias and trenches and polished back so the conducting copper material is only left in the vias and trenches.

Corrosive: A gas or liquid that will produce an irreversible degenerative chemical reaction when combined with other materials.

Cost of Ownership: The cost a chip manufacturer incurs in owning a piece of equipment incorporating fixed costs, running costs, utilities, labor rates and equipment performance and utilization.

Covalent bond: A chemical bond formed by the sharing of one or more electrons, especially pairs of electrons, between atoms.

Critical dimensions: The width of certain lines and/or spaces (CDs) in circuit patterns. Usually the dimension of the smallest feature in a given layer.

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Damascene: A process developed to replace reactive ion etching (RIE) of metal interconnect in order to reduce defects associated with metal etching and deposition. Especially useful for copper, as copper is difficult to etch. See Copper Damascene.

Deep ultraviolet (DUV): 248nm light used to expose photoresist for feature sizes under 0.3 micron.

Defect: A chemical or structural irregularity that distorts the silicon or the deposited materials on its surface.

Defect density: The relative measure of the amount of defects on an IC.

Deionized water (DI water): Ultrapure water that has been treated to remove all possible contaminants such as ions, bacteria, silica, particles, dissolved metals, etc.

Deposition: The procedure in which films of insulating and conducting materials are deposited onto a wafer.

Developer: Chemical used to remove areas defined in the masking and exposure step of wafer fabrication.

Device: Discrete component (such as a transistor, resistor or capacitor) of an integrated circuit.

Device density: The number of transistors that exist per square centimeter in an integrated circuit.

Dice: (1) v. To separate the individual die from the wafer. (2) n. plural of die.

Die: One individual integrated circuit built onto a wafer; semiconductor chip.

Die bonding: The attachment of a die (via thermal compression or ultrasonic welding of the silicon and metal frame) to the frame of a package before wire bonding. Alternative methods include the use of epoxy adhesives.

Dielectric: An insulator that provides electrical isolation between circuit conductors. Often silicon dioxide or silicon nitride.

Diffusion: A high-temperature process in which chemical impurities called dopants move through semiconductor material to change its electrical characteristics.

Digital: Electric signals that take only one of two forms, ON or OFF. Contrast with analog.

Digital signal processor (DSP): IC designed to maximize the speed of arithmetic operations and to provide high throughput for mathematical algorithms in real time. Contrast with microprocessor, whose main task is to manipulate stored data.

Diode: An electronic device that restricts current flow chiefly to one direction.

Donor: An impurity that is introduced to a semiconductor material that affects the conductivity of that element. These elements have 5 electrons in their outer ring and are found in Group V of the periodic table of elements.

Dopant: An element incorporated in trace amounts into single crystal silicon or epitaxial layers to establish their conductivity type and resistivity and create n-type or p-type silicon. Dopants are classified as either acceptors or donors.

Doping: The addition of a chemical impurity (see also acceptor and donor) into the crystal structure of a semiconductor to modify its electrical properties.

Drain: Electrical contact region of an MOS transistor device from which electricity is drawn.

Dry clean: Gas phase process used to remove photoresist and residues from the wafer surface.

Dry etch: Gas phase process resulting in the selective removal of material usually activated by formation of a plasma.

Dry plasma etch: The process of using a reactive ionized gas plasma to remove surface material from a wafer.

DSP (Digital Signal Processor): A specialized semiconductor device that converts analog signals into digital signals.

Dual damascene: A damascene process in which metal is deposited for both vias and lines at the same time.

Dynamic random access memory (DRAM): A volatile memory device which stores data as an electrical charge on a capacitor.

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E-beam: An electron beam; refers to a stream of electrons (electron beam) used to expose photoresist that is sensitive to such beams; used either to expose resists directly on a wafer or to transfer patterns onto a photomask.

Edge bead removal: Step to remove built-up photoresist on the outer edge of a wafer.

EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Memory): The predecessor to Flash memory in that is a stable form of storage that does not require a continued electrical supply.

Electrically erasable and programmable read-only memory (EEPROM): A form of non-volatile memory that can be erased electronically before being reprogrammed.

Electromigration: The movement of atoms of a conductor due to the flow of charge carriers (electrons).

Electron: An elementary atomic particle that carries the smallest negative electric charge; electrons are light in mass, highly mobile, and orbit the nucleus of an atom.

Electron conduction: Electric conduction in materials that have N-type doping.

Element: A substance composed of atoms having an identical number of protons in each nucleus. Elements cannot be reduced to simpler substances by normal chemical means.

Encapsulation: The encasing of the integrated circuit in plastic during packaging.

Epitaxy: From the Greek "arranged upon," the controlled growth on a crystalline substrate of a crystalline layer, called an epilayer.

Equipment downtime: The hours when the equipment is not in a condition, or is not available, to perform its intended function; does not include any portion of non-scheduled time.

Equipment reliability: The probability that equipment will perform its intended function, within stated conditions, for a specified period. Reliability is considered only for the time during which the equipment is operated.

Erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM): A programmable and reusable chip that holds its content until erased under ultraviolet light.

Etch: The process of removing material from a wafer (oxides or other thin films) by using plasma ion bombardment, reactive chemical, or electrolysis.

Excimer laser: A laser that produces light in the deep UV range appropriate for 0.25 micron lithography and below.

Exposure: Method of defining patterns by the interaction of light (or other form of energy) with photoresist.

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Fab: The informal name used to refer to a chip manufacturer's FABrication plant for building ICs.

Fabrication: Integrated circuit manufacturing consisting of layering, patterning, doping and heat treating wafers.

Feature Size: The width of the smallest images on a mask, reticle or wafer.

Field effect transistor (FET): A three-terminal transistor consisting of a source, drain, and gate.

Final Test: The functional testing of the electrical parameters of each IC or chip after assembly into a package. Also called package test.

Flash memory: Non-volatile memory device that can be erased and reprogrammed sector by sector in a circuit without removal from the system.

Flat: Flat sections ground into the edge of an ingot which, after the ingot is cut into wafers, leaves a flat edge on the circumference which identifies the wafer's crystal orientation.

Flat panel display (FPD): A non-cathode ray tube display generally used for portable computers.

Flip chip: The bonding of chips with contact pads, face down, by solder bump connections. Contrast with wire bonding.

Footprint: The floor area a piece of equipment occupies in the cleanroom.

Foundry: A wafer production and processing plant available on a contract basis to companies wishing to outsource production.

Four-point probe: A method or device that is used to measure resistance of thin films.

Free electron: Electron in a conduction band orbital, away from the atomic nucleus, allowing it to move freely between atoms.

Front end of line (FEOL): Fabrication steps in which the integrated circuit is formed in and on the wafer. Compare with back end.

Furnace: A high temperature (> 1000 C) quartz tube used for annealing, oxidation, or deposition.

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Gallium: A soft metal element used for p-type doping in ion implant processes. Gallium has an unusually low melting point (29.75ºC or 85.5ºF at atmospheric pressure).

Gallium arsenide: An alternative semiconductor material used in the manufacture of chips. Produces higher performance transistors. Is more difficult to manufacture than silicon and is usually produced on smaller wafer sizes.

Gate: Electrical contact region of a MOS transistor device to which voltage is applied to control the flow of electricity from the source to the drain.

Gate array: An array of electronic logic gates or functions that can be connected in a custom design and implemented on a silicon chip. The number of available gates are usually fixed as is the number of input-output pins, but the circuit designer can interconnect them in any combination to suit the needs of his design.

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Hard bake: The higher-temperature bake step after the expose step that increases the adhesion of the resist at edges.

Heteroepitaxial: Epitaxial films that are different than the substrate.

High-density plasma (HDP): Plasma with higher concentration of electrons and reactive species.

High-density plasma chemical vapor deposition (HDPCVD): A CVD process whereby high-density plasma is used.

High k Dielectric: An insulator which will not conduct electricity but which when sandwiched between metal plates will easily allow these plates to talk to each other via electric fields (this is called a capacitor structure).

High-purity / Ultra-high-purity / UHP: Terms used to refer to solids, liquids and gases that contain only trace amounts of impurities. The quantity of the impurities are usually measured in PPM (parts-per-million) or PPB (parts-per-billion).

Hole: An empty energy level in a semiconductor material that is due to an electron being lost or being trapped by an acceptor impurity (dopant).

Hole conduction: Electric current in materials that have P-type doping.

Homoepitaxial: Epitaxial films that are the same material as transistor substrate.

Hydrofluoric acid (HF): An extremely hazardous acid used to etch silicon dioxide. HF is particularly dangerous to humans because it exhibits no immediate reaction to contact with skin. However, after a short delay, HF causes servere burns and in extreme cases of prolonged exposure, leeching of calcium from bones.

Hydrogen: A non-toxic flammable element used as a reactant gas with trichlorosilane to form epitaxial silicon. Thermal oxides are grown using H2O produced from the combustion of high-purity hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is also used as a reducing gas to scavenge oxygen. Oxygen reduction prevents the formation of silicon dioxide as an impurity in the epitaxial layer. Finally, Hydrogen is used as a major component in doping gas mixtures in CVD processes.

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I-line: One of the characteristic colors of light given off by mercury arc lamps which are used as light sources in photolithographic steppers. The I-line has a wavelength of 0.365 microns (ultra violet range).

Image: To transfer a pattern onto the wafer surface using optical methods. Also referred to as "expose." The pattern on the wafer's surface is sometimes referred to as the image.

Ingot: A "log" of single crystal material before it is sawed into separate wafers.

Input-output (I/O): The transfer of data into and out of a system.

In-Situ: Referring to a process that is performed internally.

Insulator: A material that is a poor conductor of electricity or heat used to separate conductors from one another.

Integrated circuit (IC): A semiconductor electronic component made up of multiple devices and circuit elements on the same die or chip of silicon.

Interbay: Between process bays (aisles) in an IC cleanroom manufacturing facility.

Interconnect: A thin-film conductive wiring that "wires" together the millions of transistors in an integrated circuit.

Intrabay: Within process bays (aisles) in an IC cleanroom manufacturing facility.

Intrinsic: Of or relating to the essential nature of a thing; inherent. A semiconductor material’s ability to be a good or bad conductor of electricity is intrinsic; a natural property of that material.

Ion: An atom or molecule that has either gained or lost electron(s), making it charged (either positive or negative).

Ion implantation: The addition of charged atoms (ions) of chemical impurities (dopants) to semiconductor material changing the electrical properties of the silicon.

Ionized: A substance that has been given an electrical charge via a chemical reaction or through the use of radiation.

Isotropic: As related to etching of films, isotropic etching is where the film is removed in all directions simultaneously.

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k Value: The k value refers to the ability of a nonconductive material to hold a residual electric charge. The lower the k value the lower the residual electrical charge held.

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Large-Scale Integration (LSI): Describes the number of devices or gates in an integrated circuit. Levels of integration are classified as "small" (SSI, 2-50 devices per chip), "medium" (MSI, 50-5,000), "large" (LSI, 5,000-100,000), "very large" (VLSI, 100,000-1,000,000), and "ultra-large" (ULSI, >1,000,000).

Laser: Acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation light.

Layering: A process of depositing thin layers of metal or insulators onto a wafer during the wafer fabrication process using deposition and oxidation techniques.

Liquid crystal display (LCD): Also known as a flat panel display (FDP). Older types are passive matrix; newer types are active matrix.

Lead: A metal strip on the wafer surface.

Lead frame: A stamped or etched metal frame, usually connected with wire bonding to bonding pads of a die, that provides external electrical connections for a packaged electrical device.

Light emitting diode (LED): A semiconductor device that emits light. By using the proper doping species, a simple PN junction diode can be made to produce light.

Line width: Measurement of the narrow dimension of lines or spaces comprising circuit patterns (often referred to as critical dimension or "CD"). Measurement used to maintain process control.

Linear circuitry: Used to measure, sense, or display real-world signals such as temperature, pressure, light, and sound (see analog).

Lithography: The transfer of a pattern or image from mask to wafer; "photolithography" uses light to effect the transfer.

Logic: Type of IC used for data manipulation and instruction execution (contrast with DRAM).

Logic gate: A digital circuit that performs an elementary logical function. Common logic gates include AND, OR, NAND, NOR, NOT.

Low-k Dielectric: A type of insulator which helps isolate metal connections, preventing these from interfering with each other. Metals which are close together can affect each other's signals through the electric fields which run between them.

Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD): Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) carried out at reduced pressure (under vacuum).

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Mask: A flat glass plate covered with an array of patterns used in the photomasking process. Each pattern consists of opaque and clear areas that respectively prevent or allow light through. A common opaque material used in masks is chromium. Masks are aligned with existing patterns on silicon wafers and used to expose photoresist.

Masking Layer: A patterned layer associated with a semiconductor integrated circuit. A typical circuit will require between 12 and 25 masking layers for full definition.

Megabit: One million binary pieces (bits) of information.

Megabyte: One million pieces of information (bytes), each containing 8 bits of data. One megabyte equals eight megabits.

Metal oxide silicon (MOS): A type of integrated circuit device which uses a metal or conductor on top of silicon oxide insulator on top of silicon to control the flow of electrons in the silicon substrate.

Metallization: A process of depositing a thin film of conductive metal onto a substrate and patterning it to form the desired interconnection design.

Microlithography: (see Photolithography)

Micron: Common term for one-millionth of a meter or about forty-millionths of an inch. For some scale, a human hair is roughly 100 microns in diameter.

Microprocessor: Logic device that is the "brain" of a computer, providing computational capabilities.

Mixed signal: Circuit that combines both linear and digital circuitry on the same chip.

Moore's Law: Industry phenomenom brought to light by Intel chairman emeritus, Gordon Moore, which states that the number of transistors that can be integrated onto a single chip will double every 1.5 years.

Multichip module (MCM): A package containing more than one chip or die.

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Nanometer: One-billionth of a meter.

Neutron: An electrically neutral subatomic particle.

Nitrogen: A nontoxic nonflammable gas used for purging, blanketing and cleaning. Used as a CVD carrier gas.

Noise: Unwanted electrical signals that occur within electrical devices.

N-type: Silicon which has been doped with a donor impurity. N-type silicon has extra electrons in the conduction band.

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Oxidation: The formation of a layer of silicon dioxide on the surface of silicon. In general, this refers to the combination and reaction of any substance with oxygen.

Oxide: Insulating silicon dioxide film applied to the surface of a wafer.

Oxidizer: A substance that will unite with oxygen and remove electrons from atoms or ions. Also generally used to classify gases that will support combustion.

Ozone: A form of oxygen having three atoms to the molecule. Used for stripping photoresist, removing organic contamination and also for CVD or silicon oxide.

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Package: A protective container for electronic components or die with external nodes to provide electrical access; packages provide for power and signal distribution and physical and chemical protection of the circuits.

Particle: A small (0.02 micron and 10 micron), solid contaminant such as dust, skin flake, or clothing fiber, that interferes with the manufacture of integrated circuits. The removal of particles from the manufacturing environment is a major focus of cleanroom construction.

Passivation: A layer of insulating material deposited on a wafer to stabilize and protect the surface against moisture, contamination, and mechanical damage.

Pellicle: Optical grade polymer film placed over a mask or reticle used to keep airborne particles out of the focal plane during exposure.

Photolithography: Lithography that uses light to transfer a circuit pattern onto the wafer.

Photoresist: A photo- or light-sensitive, etch-resistant material used for transferring an image to the surface of a wafer. The exposed (or unexposed, depending on its polarity) photoresist is dissolved with developers, leaving a pattern of photoresist that allows etching to take place in some areas while preventing it in others.

Physical vapor deposition (PVD): The deposition of a thin metal film on a wafer by evaporating or sputtering the metal from a solid target.

Planarization: The smoothing or milling of the surface of a wafer.

Plasma: Ionized gas consisting of high energy electrons, ions, and reactive atoms and molecules.

Platform: The frame of the machine, including robotic handling apparatus, needed to feed wafers to their loading station and then into the individual process modules in which the processing will occur.

Plug: A metal deposited into a connecting via hole between conducting layers of a multiplayer metallization system.

PN junction: The point at which two oppositely-doped areas of a semiconductor material come together.

Polysilicon (Poly): An amorphous form of silicon with randomly oriented crystals, usually created by CVD techniques from a silicon gas source such as silane.

Prebake: A heat treatment of a photoresist coating before light exposure.

Printed circuit: A circuit in which the wires or components have been replaced by a conductive pattern printed on or bonded to the surface of an insulating board.

Printed circuit board (PCB): The board(s) used in a computer system onto which semiconductor components are connected. Often made of epoxy- and fiberglass-based materials laminated with copper interconnect layers.

Probe card: A printed circuit board with hundreds of probe needles lined up to establish electrical contact with a series of metalized pads on the integrated circuit. Used for testing the integrated circuit.

Probe test: The functional testing of the elctrical parameters of each die after fabrication while in wafer form. Also called wafer sort or wafer probe.

Process diagnostics: The inspection of wafers and masks for defects throughout fabrication.

Process equipment: Fabrication equipment, inspection equipment, cassette equipment and so on, used in semiconductor manufacturing.

Process module: One of the physical units of a cluster tool that affects some change in a wafer. This module accepts or presents a single wafer inside the module for intratool transport (wafer movement inside the cluster tool).

Processing cycle: A sequence wherein all of the material contained in a typical process unit is processed.

Proton: A stable, positively charged subatomic particle in the baryon family having a mass 1,836 times that of the electron. Located in the nucleus of the atom.

P-type: Silicon which has been doped with an acceptor impurity. P-type silicon has a shortage of electrons in the conduction band.

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Quartz: Silicon dioxide. A material used in the construction of equipment, wafer carriers and masks.

Quartz Tube: A quartz cylinder used to hold wafers placed in a furnace.

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Random access memory (RAM): A storage device in which the ability to access a randomly selected bit of stored data is independent of either the timing of the most recent access of that bit or the location of the most recently addressed bit.

Rapid Thermal Processing (RTP): A method of rapidly heating up a wafer by exposing it to bright lamps. Wafers can be raised from room temperature to up to 1100°C in seconds, and cooled in a similar length of time.

RCA Clean: A multi-step, wet process to clean wafers before critical wafer fabrication steps. Named after RCA, the company that developed the procedure. This process uses ammonium hydroxide, hydrogen peroxide and hydrochloric acid.

Residue: Any undesirable material that remains on a substrate after a process step.

Residue removal: Removal of all remaining residues left on the wafer after the implant or etch process.

Resist: A common term for photoresist.

Resist processing: Coating wafer with photosensitive chemicals prior to exposure.

Resistance: The tendency or ability of a material to resist the passage of electric current.

Resistivity: A measure of the resistance of a material.

Reticle: A reduction photomask used in a stepper. Interchangeable with mask.

Rinse: The removal of cleaning solutions, etchants or developers, etc. from the wafer using water. Rinsing stops the processes by removing the active chemical from the surface. There are several different methods of rinsing including overflow rinsing, dump rinsing and spin rinsing.

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Scanning electron microscope (SEM): High resolution photography that uses electrons rather than light waves to define an image.

Selectivity: Selectivity refers to the ability of an etch process to only etch the layer which is to be patterned and not attack the layer underneath. A high selectivity is a good thing.

Semiconductor: A material such as silicon or germanium, intermediate in electrical conductivity between conductors and insulators. Two conduction mechanisms by electrons and holes enable fabrication of many types of electronic devices on semiconducting materials.

Shrink: A scaled reduction in circuit line width resulting in a smaller die and more dice per wafer.

Silicide: A compound formed when silicon or polysilicon reacts with a metal.

Silicon: A semiconductor element used for fabrication of transistors and integrated circuits. Formed into thin wafers of single-crystalline material to facilitate integrated circuit fabrication.

Silicon dioxide: Also called quartz or glass. Created via thermal oxidation of silicon. Silicon dioxide is typically used as a passivation, masking or insulating layer.

Silicon Germanium: A compound of the elements of Silicon and Germanium. SiGe is used for high speed applications such as communications transitions as well as an enhancement for the transistors in advanced logic devices.

Silicon nitride: Typically used as a passivation, masking or insulating layer.

Silicon tetrachloride: A colorless, corrosive, nonflammable liquid that forms hydrogen chloride when combined with water. It is used for epitaxial deposition of single-crystal silicon and for high-temperature silicon dioxide CVD.

Silicon tetrafluoride: A colorless, corrosive, gas used in its pure state and in oxygen mixtures to etch silicides, silicon, adn polysilicon films. Silicon Tetrafluoride disassociates in the presence of an RF field to produce reactive fluoride ions which react with and etch silicon films.

Slice: To cut into wafers; to cut a crystalline ingot into thin wafers.

Slurry: A mixture of liquid and solid abrasive particles used for polishing.

Soft bake: The lower-temperature bake step, prior to the expose step, that evaporates the solvent from the photoresist layer.

Solid-state device: An electronic device that is built on or within a solid material, usually a semiconductor material. Contrast this to a vacuum tube which requires electron movement between electrodes in a vacuum/low pressure environment.

Source: (1) Any device that produces electrical energy, or current. (2) Electrical contact region of an MOS transistor device to which electricity is supplied.

Spin-rinse-dryer (SRD) / Spin Tool: This is a machine for etching or cleaning wafers in wet chemicals. A cassette holding its wafers is turned round and round as chemicals are dispensed over the wafers. Wafers are rinsed in pure (de-ionized) water, and dried by spinning at high speeds.

Spinner / spin coater: Device for holding a substrate and spinning it at a controlled rate of speed for applying extremely thin coating as with resist.

Spinning: A technique in which wafers are coated by spinning liquid photoresist on a rotating wafer surface.

Spot market: The same as any commodity; a "spot" opportunity for immediate delivery or sale.

Spray Tool: This is a machine for etching or cleaning wafers in wet chemicals. Chemicals are sprayed onto the wafers as they are rotated in the chamber.

Sputter etch: The use of ion bombardment to remove a film from the wafer surface.

Sputtering: (1) A method of depositing a metal layer onto a wafer by bombarding a target material with ions and/or plasma (see PVD). (2) A method of removing contaminants or oxide from a wafer surface by bombarding the wafer surface with ions and/or plasma.

Standardized Mechanical Interface (SMIF): A wafer manufacturing concept in which wafers are kept in sealed pods when they are not being processed in machines.

Static random access memory (SRAM): Volatile memory device that does not require multiple power refreshing every second, as DRAM does.

Stepper: An optical imaging tool that transfers the pattern on a reticle directly onto the wafer one field at a time. Alignment of the reticle to the wafer is accomplished by optical means using special alignment targets assuring registration at each field location.

Stripping: The removal of photoresist through either dry or wet processing.

Subatomic: Of or relating to particles that are smaller than an atom.

Subatomic particle: Any of various units of matter below the size of an atom, including the elementary particles such as electrons, protons, and neutrons.

Substrate: The underlying material (wafer) upon which a device, circuit, or epitaxial layer is formed.

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Thermal diffusion: Process by which dopant atoms diffuse into the wafer surface by heating the wafer.

Thermal oxidation: The process of creating silicon dioxide when silicon reacts with oxygen at or near 100°C.

Throughput: The measure of an equipment’s capacity to process, usually expressed in wafers per hour.

Track: A photoresist processing system that includes a spin coater, soft bake, develop, and hard bake modules.

Transistor: Named for its electrical characteristic of "transfer resistance," these are the current switches that are the essential building blocks of integrated circuits.

Trench A semiconductor device feature that resembles a trench. A trench is typically formed as the repository of a differing material (than the trench walls), such as copper that will become an interconnect or an oxide in shallow trench isolation that will isolate gate structures from each other.

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Utilization: The level of manufacturing equipment being operated relative to the total amount of manufacturing equipment available.

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Very large scale integration (VLSI): Semiconductor fabrication technology that can create an approximate density of between 1000 and 1,000,000 devices on each individual die.

Via: A vertical opening filled with conducting material that is used to connect wiring in one metallization layer to that in an adjacent layer.

Voltage: Electromotive force or potential difference, usually expressed in volts.

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Wafer: A thin slice (10-30 mils thick) cut from a cylindrical ingot of semiconductor material.

Wafer fab: A specially equipped, very clean facility where semiconductor wafers are fabricated for the production of integrated circuits. These facilities are known as "fabs".

Wafer fabrication: The processing of semiconductor wafers for the production of integrated circuits.

Wafer probe: A system which uses a probe card to test the functionality of an integrated circuit.

Wet bench: A system which includes several tanks for processing wafers in liquid chemicals.

Wet clean: Liquid process for removing contaminants from a wafer surface during integrated circuit fabrication.

Wet processing: Etching using liquid acids, solvents, or water in process steps.

Wire bonding: A method of making the electrical interconnection from the chip to the leads on a package.

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X-ray lithography: Lithography for transferring patterns to a silicon wafer in which the electromagnetic radiation used is X-ray, rather than visible or ultra-violet radiation.

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Yield: The percentage of wafers, dice, or packaged units, out of the total fabricated, that meet functional specifications.

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Zero defects: Refers to the ultimate goal of the semiconductor industry. Defects usually result in lower production yield and also device reliability problems.