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    MEMS Assignment On Crystal Structure of Silicon: R.Vijayaraghavan - 11MMT0002

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    Vijayraghavan Ramesh
    The document summarizes the crystal structure of silicon. It discusses that silicon occurs naturally as silica and silicates. In its solid state, silicon atoms share electrons in covalent bonds forming a cubic crystal structure. The three main crystal planes in silicon wafers used for electronics are (100), (011), and (111). These planes differ in their atomic density and number of dangling bonds. The (111) plane is the most difficult to etch due to the closest atomic spacing.

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    MEMS Assignment On Crystal Structure of Silicon: R.Vijayaraghavan - 11MMT0002

    Uploaded by

    Vijayraghavan Ramesh
    163 views6 pages
    The document summarizes the crystal structure of silicon. It discusses that silicon occurs naturally as silica and silicates. In its solid state, silicon atoms share electrons in covalent bonds forming a cubic crystal structure. The three main crystal planes in silicon wafers used for electronics are (100), (011), and (111). These planes differ in their atomic density and number of dangling bonds. The (111) plane is the most difficult to etch due to the closest atomic spacing.

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    Crystal Structure of Silicon

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    The document summarizes the crystal structure of silicon. It discusses that silicon occurs naturally as silica and silicates. In its solid state, silicon atoms share electrons in covalent bonds forming a cubic crystal structure. The three main crystal planes in silicon wafers used for electronics are (100), (011), and (111). These planes differ in their atomic density and number of dangling bonds. The (111) plane is the most difficult to etch due to the closest atomic spacing.

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    Download as pdf or txt
    163 views6 pages

    MEMS Assignment On Crystal Structure of Silicon: R.Vijayaraghavan - 11MMT0002

    Uploaded by

    Vijayraghavan Ramesh
    The document summarizes the crystal structure of silicon. It discusses that silicon occurs naturally as silica and silicates. In its solid state, silicon atoms share electrons in covalent bonds forming a cubic crystal structure. The three main crystal planes in silicon wafers used for electronics are (100), (011), and (111). These planes differ in their atomic density and number of dangling bonds. The (111) plane is the most difficult to etch due to the closest atomic spacing.

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    MEMS Assignment on Crystal Structure of Silicon

    R.Vijayaraghavan

    - 11MMT0002

    Faculty : Dr.P.Vivekanada Shanmuganathan

    Silicon : Silicon with an atomic Number 14 is behaves like a semi conductor. Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but very rarely occurs as the pure free element in nature. It appears in the free form of dusts, sands, planetoids, and planets as various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant element in the earth's crust (about 28% by mass) after oxygen. The 1s, 2s, 2p, and 3s energy levels are all filled and the 3p energy level has 2 electrons occupying levels with a capacity of 6 electrons. In the solid state - silicon satisfies the unfilled 3p energy levels by sharing electrons with the four nearest neighbour atoms forming covalent bonds .

    Fig 1 : Atomic Structure of Silicon Crystal Structure of Silicon : The Unit Cell of Silicon is Cubic. Four Atoms surround any silicon atom. It implies all the corner atoms share the plane. The crystal planes are usually represented using unit cell .A silicon has 3 standard planes that are widely used in the form of silicon wafer for various components in electronics and mems manufacturing. These are (100) ,(011),(111) of X,Y& Z Coordinates. The representation means it makes a unit intercept in the corresponding axis .

    Fig 2 : The Different Planes of Silicon

    Number of atoms in a unit cell: 4 atoms completely inside cell Each of the 8 atoms on corners are shared among cells
    count as 1 atom inside cell

    Each of the 6 atoms on the faces are shared among 2 inside cell Total number inside the cell = 4 + 1 + 3 = 8 Cell volume: (.543 nm)3 = 1.6 x 10-22 cm3

    cells count as 3 atoms

    Density of silicon atoms = (8 atoms) / (cell volume) = 5 x 1022 atoms/cm3

    (100) Plane :

    The (100) surface has a unit cell area where a is the lattice constant. The unit cell area is Area = 2.95* 10-15 cm2

    and each unit cell contains 2 atoms yielding 3.39 1014 cells/cm2 and 6.78 1014 atoms/cm2. There are 4 dangling surface bonds per unit cell or 1.36 1015 bonds/cm2. The (100) plane in FCC is much less densely packed. It is shown in the figure to the right and has only four atoms as nearest neighbours in the plane. The remaining eight are split between those above the plane and below, so that in net there are four dangling bonds in (100) FCC. We know that the PD for FCC (100) is 79%. Thus the surface energy is: SE(100)=(4 bonds/atom)(0.79/pi*R^2 atoms/area) = 3.16/pi*R^2 bonds/area.

    The (110) surface :

    The (110) surface has a unit cell area The unit cell area is 4.17 10-15/cm2 and each unit cell contains 4 atoms yielding 2.40 1014 cells/cm2 and 9.60 1014 atoms/cm2. There are 8 surface bonds (dangling plus parallel) per unit cell [1] or 1.92 1015 bonds/cm2. area is 4.17 10-15/cm2

    The (111) surface :

    The (111) surface has a unit cell area The unit cell area is 2.55 10-15/cm2

    and each unit cell contains 2 atoms yielding 3.92 1014 cells/cm2 and 7.83 1014 atoms/cm2. There are 4 surface bonds per unit cell or 1.57 1015 bonds/cm2.

    Figure : Silicon Structure in different Planes

    Factors Affecting Silicon in etching :

    Generally during fabrication of any device we need to have a block of single crystal silicon which is generally grown from the melt. When we are solidifying the melt under the controlled conditions it is easier to grow in (111) direction because those planes are most closely placed together. For this reason it is most difficult to etch silicon in (111) direction as there is least spacing between them. When the silicon is exposed to etchant it will stop etching once it encounters a (111) plane, making 100 being the most easy plane to etch than any other plane. Consider the angle between a (100) and (111) planes where cos = 1/ 3 = 54.74 This shows that whenever a (100) plane is etched it will etch at an angle of 54.74 deg forming a V groove shape instead of a vertical type. Silicon Structure in Silicon Wafers :

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