Microelectronics

Engr. Policarpio D. Tena II, MEng

De La Salle Lipa
Computer Engineering Department
History of Electronics
 Began with Benjamin Franklin in 1747
 He determined that electricity was a single force, with
positive and negative aspects
 Coined over 25 new terms, including armature, battery, and
conductor
 Famous kite-flying experiment in a thunderstorm was
performed in 1752, near the end of his work in the field
 Ben Franklin arbitrarily assumed that the actual
carriers of electrical current had a positive electrical
charge.
 While this assumption was wrong, all his experiments still
worked, and this assumption is still often used today.
 However, the theories of electricity go back a lot
farther than this.
 History 1
 600 B.C. – Thales of Miletus writes about amber
becoming charged by rubbing.
 1600 – English scientist William Gilbert coins the term
electricity from the Greek word for amber.
Experiments with magnets, coining the terms electric
force, magnetic pole, and electric attraction.
 1745 – Dutch physicist Pieter van Musschenbroek
invented the “Leyden Jar”, a device that stored static
electricity. This was the first capacitor.
 1747 – William Watson discharged a Leyden Jar through
a circuit. This begins the comprehension of current and
circuits.
 1800 – Alessandro Volta invents the first electric
battery. He also proved that electricity could travel
over wires.
History 2
 1820 – Oersted and Ampere observe that a coil of wires
acts like a magnet when a current is passed through it
 1821 – Faraday invents the first electric motor
 1826 – Ohm states a relationship between potential,
current, and circuit resistance
 1873 – Maxwell writes equations that described the
electromagnetic field
 1876 – Edison Electric Light Co. founded
 1879 – First commercial power station opens in San
Francisco, uses a Brush generator and arc lights
 1883 – Transformer invented
 1886 – Alternating current electric system developed by
William Stanley
 1897 – Electron discovered by J.J. Thompson
The Start of the Modern
Electronics Era

Bardeen, Shockley, and Brattain at The first germanium bipolar

Bell Labs - Brattain and Bardeen transistor. Roughly 50 years later,
invented the bipolar transistor in 1947. electronics account for 10% (4 trillion
dollars) of the world GDP.
 Electronics Milestones
1874 Braun invents the solid-state 1958 Integrated circuits developed by Kilby
rectifier. and Noyce
1906 DeForest invents triode vacuum 1961 First commercial IC from Fairchild
tube. Semiconductor
1907-1927 1963 IEEE formed from merger of IRE and
AIEE
First radio circuits developed from
diodes and triodes. 1968 First commercial IC opamp
1925 Lilienfeld field-effect device patent 1970 One transistor DRAM cell invented by
filed. Dennard at IBM.
1947 Bardeen and Brattain at Bell 1971 4004 Intel microprocessor introduced.
Laboratories invent bipolar 1978 First commercial 1-kilobit memory.
transistors.
1952 Commercial bipolar transistor 1974 8080 microprocessor introduced.
production at Texas Instruments. 1984 Megabit memory chip introduced.
1956 Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley 2000 Alferov, Kilby, and Kromer share Nobel
receive Nobel prize. prize
Evolution of Electronic
Devices

Vacuum Discrete
Tubes Transistors

SSI and MSI VLSI

Integrated Surface-Mount
Circuits Circuits
Microelectronics Proliferation

 The integrated circuit was invented in 1958.

 World transistor production has more than
doubled every year for the past twenty years.
 Every year, more transistors are produced
than in all previous years combined.
 Approximately 1018 transistors were produced
in a recent year.
 Roughly 50 transistors for every ant in the
world.

*Source: Gordon Moore’s Plenary address at the 2003

International Solid State Circuits Conference.
Microprocessor
 A microprocessor is a computer processor which incorporates the
functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) on a single
integrated circuit (IC), or at most a few integrated circuits.
 The microprocessor is a multipurpose, clock driven, register based,
programmable electronic device which accepts digital or binary data as
input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and
provides results as output.
 Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and sequential digital
logic. Microprocessors operate on numbers and symbols represented in
the binary numerical system.
Microprocessor

 The integration of a whole CPU onto a single chip or on a

few chips greatly reduced the cost of processing power.
 Integrated circuit processors are produced in large numbers
by highly automated processes resulting in a low per unit
cost.
 As microprocessor designs get faster, the cost of
manufacturing a chip (with smaller components built on a
semiconductor chip the same size) generally stays the same.
 First all electric programmable computer ENIAC.
 Used to measure projection of the artillery on military.
 With 17K transistor, 5kHZ clock and weighs 27 tons.
 Launch of Apollo 11 (took man to the moon),1966
 With 70 lbs, 17K transistors and 2 MHz Clock. (use for navigation)
 Viatron,1968 (first use the word “microprocessor”)
 Intel 4004, first commercial microprocessor (1971)
 4 bit CPU, 2003 transistor with 108 KHz clock
 TMS 1000, Texas Instrument, TI Datamath Calculator (1974)
 Intel i860 XP (exponential increase in no. of transistors), AMD Athlon 1000 (2000), AMD
Athlon X2 (first dual microprocessor), Intel Quadcore Processor
 AMD FX – highest processor clock (8.429 GHZ), IBM True North Neuromorphic Chip –
highest number of transistor with 5.4 million transistor.
 The advent of low-cost computers on integrated circuits has transformed modern society.
General-purpose microprocessors in personal computers are used for computation, text editing,
multimedia display, and communication over the Internet.
 Many more microprocessors are part of embedded systems, providing digital control over myriad
objects from appliances to automobiles to cellular phones and industrial process control.
 The first use of the term "microprocessor" is attributed to Viatron Computer Systems describing
the custom integrated circuit used in their System 21 small computer system announced in 1968.
 By the late-1960s, designers were striving to integrate the central processing unit (CPU) functions
of a computer onto a handful of MOS LSI chips, called microprocessor unit (MPU) chip sets.
Building on 8-bit arithmetic logic units (3800/3804) he designed earlier at Fairchild, in 1969 Lee
Boysel created the Four-Phase Systems Inc.
 Intel introduced its first 4-bit microprocessor 4004 in 1971 and its 8-bit
microprocessor 8008 in 1972.
 During the 1960s, computer processors were constructed out of small and medium-
scale ICs—each containing from tens of transistors to a few hundred.
 These were placed and soldered onto printed circuit boards, and often multiple
boards were interconnected in a chassis.
 The large number of discrete logic gates used more electrical power—and
therefore produced more heat—than a more integrated design with fewer ICs.
 The distance that signals had to travel between ICs on the boards limited a
computer's operating speed.
 In the NASA Apollo space missions to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, all onboard computations for
primary guidance, navigation and control were provided by a small custom processor called "The
Apollo Guidance Computer". It used wire wrap circuit boards whose only logic elements were three-
input NOR gates.
 The first microprocessors emerged in the early 1970s and were used for electronic calculators, using
binary-coded decimal (BCD) arithmetic on 4-bit words. Other embedded uses of 4-bit and 8-bit
microprocessors, such as terminals, printers, various kinds of automation etc., followed soon after.
Affordable 8-bit microprocessors with 16-bitaddressing also led to the first general-purpose
microcomputers from the mid-1970s on.
 Since the early 1970s, the increase in capacity of microprocessors has followed Moore's law; this
originally suggested that the number of components that can be fitted onto a chip doubles every
year. With present technology, it is actually every two years, and as such Moore later changed the
period to two years.
First projects
 Three projects delivered a microprocessor at about the same time:
 Garrett Ai Research's Central Air Data Computer (CADC),
 Texas Instruments (TI) TMS 1000 (1971 September), and
 Intel's 4004 (1971 November).
8-bit design

 The Intel 4004 was followed in 1972 by the Intel 8008, the world's
first 8-bit microprocessor.
 The 8008 was not, however, an extension of the 4004 design, but
instead the culmination of a separate design project at Intel.
12-bit designs

The Intersil 6100 family consisted of a 12-bitmicroprocessor (the

6100) and a range of peripheral support and memory ICs. The
microprocessor recognized the DEC PDP-8minicomputer instruction set.
As such it was sometimes referred to as the CMOS-PDP8.
Since it was also produced by Harris Corporation, it was also known
as the Harris HM-6100. By virtue of its CMOS technology and associated
benefits, the 6100 was being incorporated into some military designs
until the early 1980s.
16-bit designs
 The first multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor was the National Semiconductor
IMP-16, introduced in early 1973. An 8-bit version of the chipset was
introduced in 1974 as the IMP-8.
 Other early multi-chip 16-bit microprocessors include one that Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC) used in the LSI-11 OEM board set and the
packaged PDP 11/03minicomputer—and the Fairchild Semiconductor
MicroFlame 9440, both introduced in 1975–76. In 1975, National introduced
the first 16-bit single-chip microprocessor, the National Semiconductor
PACE, which was later followed by an NMOS version, the INS8900.
32-bit designs

 16-bit designs had only been on the market briefly when 32-bit
implementations started to appear.
 The most significant of the 32-bit designs is the Motorola MC68000,
introduced in 1979.
 The 68k, as it was widely known, had 32-bit registers in its
programming model but used 16-bit internal data paths, three 16-
bit Arithmetic Logic Units, and a 16-bit external data bus (to
reduce pin count), and externally supported only 24-bit addresses
(internally it worked with full 32 bit addresses).
64-bit designs
While 64-bit microprocessor designs have been in use in several markets since the early 1990s
(including the Nintendo 64 gaming console in 1996), the early 2000s saw the introduction of 64-bit
microprocessors targeted at the PC market.
With AMD's introduction of a 64-bit architecture backwards-compatible with x86,x86-64 (also called
AMD64), in September 2003, followed by Intel's near fully compatible 64-bit extensions (first called
IA-32e or EM64T, later renamed Intel 64), the 64-bit desktop era began.
Both versions can run 32-bit legacy applications without any performance penalty as well as new
64-bit software. With operating systems Windows XP x64, Windows Vista x64, Windows 7 x64,Linux,
BSD, and Mac OS X that run 64-bit native, the software is also geared to fully utilize the capabilities
of such processors. The move to 64 bits is more than just an increase in register size from the IA-32
as it also doubles the number of general-purpose registers.
RISC

 In the mid-1980s to early 1990s, a crop of new high-performance

reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessors appeared,
influenced by discrete RISC-like CPU designs such as the IBM 801
 and others. RISC microprocessors were initially used in special-
purpose machines and Unix workstations, but then gained wide
acceptance in other roles.
 The first commercial RISC microprocessor design was released in
1984 by MIPS Computer Systems, the 32-bit R2000 (the R1000 was
not released).
Multi-core designs

 A different approach to improving a computer's performance is to add extra

processors, as in symmetric multiprocessing designs, which have been popular in
servers and workstations since the early 1990s.
 Keeping up with Moore's Law is becoming increasingly challenging as chip-making
technologies approach their physical limits. In response, microprocessor
manufacturers look for other ways to improve performance so they can maintain
the momentum of constant upgrades.
 A multi-core processor is a single chip that contains more than one
microprocessor core. Each core can simultaneously execute processor
instructions in parallel. This effectively multiplies the processor's potential
performance by the number of cores, if the software is designed to take
advantage of more than one processor core.
Multi-core designs
 In 2001, IBM introduced the first commercial multi-core processor, the monolithic two-
corePOWER4. Personal computers did not receive multi-core processors until the 2003
introduction of the two-core Intel Pentium D.
 The Pentium D, however, was not a monolithic multi-core processor. It was constructed from two
dies, each containing a core, packaged on a multi-chip module.
 The first monolithic multi-core processor in the personal computer market was the AMD Athlon
X2, which was introduced a few weeks after the Pentium D. As of 2012, dual- and quad-core
processors are widely used in home PCs and laptops, while quad-, six-, eight-, ten-, twelve-, and
sixteen-core processors are common in the professional and enterprise markets with workstations
and servers.
 Sun Microsystems has released the Niagara and Niagara 2 chips, both of which feature an eight-
core design. The Niagara 2 supports more threads and operates at 1.6 GHz.
Multi-core designs
 High-end Intel Xeon processors that are on the LGA 771, LGA 1366, and LGA 2011sockets and
high-end AMD Opteron processors that are on the C32 and G34sockets are DP (dual processor)
capable, as well as the older Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 also used in an older Mac Pro by Apple
and the Intel Skulltrail motherboard. AMD's G34 motherboards can support up to four CPUs and
Intel's LGA 1567 motherboards can support up to eight CPUs.
 Modern desktop computers support systems with multiple CPUs, but few applications outside of
the professional market can make good use of more than four cores. Both Intel and AMD currently
offer fast quad, hex and octa-core desktop CPUs, making multi-CPU systems obsolete for many
purposes. The desktop market has been in a transition towards quad-core CPUs since Intel's Core
2 Quad was released and are now common, although dual-core CPUs are still more prevalent.
Older or mobile computers are less likely to have more than two cores than newer desktops. Not
all software is optimised for multi-core CPUs, making fewer, more powerful cores preferable.
Multi-core designs

 Historically, AMD and Intel have switched places as the company with the
fastest CPU several times. Intel currently leads on the desktop side of the
computer CPU market, with their Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge series.
 In servers, AMD's new Opterons seem to have superior performance for
their price point. This means that AMD are currently more competitive in
low- to mid-end servers and workstations that more effectively use fewer
cores and threads.
 Taken to the extreme, this trend also includes many core designs, with
hundreds of cores, with qualitatively different architectures.
 Semiconductor Manufacturing
Process

Fundamental Processing Steps

1.Silicon Manufacturing
a) Czochralski method
b) Wafer Manufacturing

2.Photolithography
a) Photoresists
b) Photomask and Reticles
c) Patterning
 Semiconductor Manufacturing Process
(cont)

3.Oxide Growth & Removal

a) Oxide Growth & Deposition
b) Oxide Removal
c) Other effects
d) Local Oxidation

4. Diffusion & Ion Implantation

a) Diffusion
b) Other effects
c) Ion Implantation
Silicon Manufacturing

Crystal Growth and Wafer

Manufacturing
FABRICATING SILICON
 Quartz, or Silica, Consists of Silicon Dioxide
 Sand Contains Many Tiny Grains of Quartz
 Silicon Can be Artificially Produced by Combining Silica and Carbon in
Electric Furnice
 Gives Polycrystalline Silicon (multitude of crystals)
 Practical Integrated Circuits Can Only be Fabricated from Single-Crystal
Material
 CRYSTAL GROWTH

 Czochralski Process is
a Technique in Making
Single-Crystal Silicon
 A Solid Seed Crystal is
Rotated and Slowly
Extracted from a Pool
of Molten Si
 Requires Careful
Control to Give
Crystals Desired Purity
and Dimensions
CYLINDER OF MONOCRYSTALLINE

 The Silicon Cylinder is

Known as an Ingot
 Typical Ingot is About 1 or
2 Meters in Length
 Can be Sliced into
Hundreds of Smaller
Circular Pieces Called
Wafers
 Each Wafer Yields
Hundreds or Thousands of
Integrated Circuits
WAFER MANUFACTURING

 The Silicon Crystal is Sliced by Using a Diamond-Tipped Saw

into Thin Wafers
 Sorted by Thickness
 Damaged Wafers Removed During Lapping
 Etch Wafers in Chemical to Remove any Remaining Crystal
Damage
 Polishing Smoothes Uneven Surface Left by Sawing Process
Silicon Manufacturing

Photolithography
Photolithography

Photolithography is
a technique that is
used to define the
shape of micro-
machined structures
on a wafer.
Photolithography
Photoresist
The first step in the photolithography process is to
develop a mask, which will be typically be a chromium
pattern on a glass plate.

Next, the wafer is then coated with a polymer which is

sensitive to ultraviolet light called a photoresist.

Afterward, the photoresist is then developed which

transfers the pattern on the mask to the photoresist
layer.
Photolithography
Photoresist
There are two basic types of Photoresists Positive and
Negative.

Positive resists.

Positive resists decomposes ultraviolet light. The resist is exposed with UV

light wherever the underlying material is to be removed. In these resists,
exposure to the UV light changes the chemical structure of the resist so
that it becomes more soluble in the developer. The exposed resist is then
washed away by the developer solution, leaving windows of the bare
underlying material. The mask, therefore, contains an exact copy of the
pattern which is to remain on the wafer.
Photolithography
Photoresist
Negative resists

Exposure to the UV light causes the negative resist to become

polymerized, and more difficult to dissolve. Therefore, the negative resist
remains on the surface wherever it is exposed, and the developer solution
removes only the unexposed portions. Masks used for negative
photoresists, therefore, contain the inverse (or photographic "negative")
of the pattern to be transferred.
 Photolithography
Model

 Figure 1a shows a thin film of

some material (eg, silicon
dioxide) on a substrate of some
other material (eg, a silicon
wafer).

 Photoresist layer (Figure 1b )

 Ultraviolet light is then shone

through the mask onto the
photoresist (figure 1c).
 Photolithography
Model (cont)

 The photoresist is then

developed which transfers the
pattern on the mask to the
photoresist layer (figure 1d).

 A chemical (or some other

method) is then used to remove
the oxide where it is exposed
through the openings in the
resist (figure 1e).

 Finally the resist is removed

leaving the patterned oxide
(figure 1f).
Photolithography
Photomasks and Reticles
Photomask
This is a square glass plate with a patterned emulsion of
metal film on one side. The mask is aligned with the
wafer, so that the pattern can be transferred onto the
wafer surface. Each mask after the first one must be
aligned to the previous pattern.
Photolithography
Photomasks and Reticles
When a image on the photomask is projected several time side
by side onto the wafer, this is known as stepping and the
photomask is called a reticle.

The common reticle is the 5X

The patterns on the 5X reticle are reduced 5 times when projected

onto the wafer. This means the dies on the photomask are 5 times
larger than they are on the final product. There are other kinds of
reduction reticles (2X, 4X, and 10X), but the 5X is the most
commonly used. Reduction reticles are used on a variety of steppers,
the most common being ASM, Canon, Nikon, and GCA.
Photolithography
Photomasks and Reticles
Once the mask has been accurately aligned with the pattern
on the wafer's surface, the photoresist is exposed through the
pattern on the mask with a high intensity ultraviolet light.
There are three primary exposure methods: contact,
proximity, and projection.
Lithography

Reference: FULLMAN KINETICS 

Grow Oxide Layer

Reference: FULLMAN KINETICS 

Add Photoresist

Reference: FULLMAN KINETICS 

Mask

Reference: FULLMAN KINETICS 

Animation

Reference: FULLMAN KINETICS

Reference: FULLMAN KINETICS 
Reference: FULLMAN KINETICS 
Reference: FULLMAN KINETICS 
Reference: FULLMAN KINETICS 
Silicon Manufacturing

Oxidation of Silicon
 SiO2 growth is a key process step in
manufacturing all Si devices
- Thick (­1µm) oxides are used for field oxides
(isolate devices from one another )
- Thin gate oxides (­100 Å) control MOS devices
- Sacrificial layers are grown and removed to
clean up surfaces
 The stability and ease of formation of SiO2 was
one of the reasons that Si replaced Ge as the
semiconductor of choice.
The simplest method of producing an oxide layer
consists of heating a silicon wafer in an oxidizing
atmosphere.
Etching
Etching is the process where unwanted areas of films
are removed by either dissolving them in a wet
chemical solution (Wet Etching) or by reacting them
with gases in a plasma to form volatile products (Dry
Etching).

Resist protects areas which are to remain. In some

cases a hard mask, usually patterned layers of SiO2 or
Si3N4, are used when the etch selectivity to
photoresist is low or the etching environment causes
resist to delaminate.
This is part of lithography - pattern transfer.
Test and Assembly

Wafer
Design
Preparation

 Electrical Test Probe Thin Films

Front-End
Processes
 Die Cut and Assembly
 Die Attach and Wire Bonding Photo-
lithography
 Final Test
Ion
Etch
Implantation

Cleaning Planarization

Test &
Assembly
Sorens
on
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 Electrical Test Probe

bonding pad
nitride
Metal 2

n-well p-well
p-channel transistor n-channel transistor
p+ substrate

Defective IC

Individual integrated circuits

are tested to distinguish good
die
Sorens
from bad ones.
on
57
 Die Cut and Assembly

Good chips are attached

to a lead frame package.

Sorens
on
58
Die Attach and Wire Bonding

lead frame gold wire

bonding pad

connecting pin

Sorens
on
59
 Final Test

Chips are electrically

tested under varying
environmental conditions.

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on
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