Dry Oxide Growth SOP

SOP for dry oxide growth of 10nm SiO2

Parameters

Temperature

1100°C

Total Time

30 min (subject to change)

Purpose

The oxidation growth of the silicon layer creates a layer of insulation to prevent direct flow from the conducting MOSFET layer to the metal gate.

  1. Tube Furnace (ThermoFisher Manual) with fused silica tube

  2. Fused silica rod

  3. Fused silica microscope slide

Tools

  1. Tube Furnace (ThermoFisher Manual) with fused silica tube

  2. Fused silica rod

  3. Fused silica microscope slide

Materials

  1. Pure silicon chip (not pre-deposited)

Procedure

Pre-heating the Furnace

  1. Turn on the furnace.

  2. Press and hold “set/ent” for three seconds until “mode res” is showing. Press the up arrow twice until mode “LCL” is selected. Press “enter” once. Now the furnace will hold the temperature shown. Use the arrow keys to adjust and press “enter” once to set the setpoint.

  3. Wait ~15 min for the furnace to come to temperature.

  4. If the furnace stops and holds at a lower temperature than your setpoint, the high temperature alarm may be too low. Read the instructions on page 6-7 to fix this.

Inserting chips

  1. Put the fused silica microscope slide in the entrance of the tube. Do not use a regular borosilicate microscope slide, or it will melt inside the tube. The edge of a fused silica slide is pure white, while borosilicate is a little bit green.

A chip permanently fused to the tube furnace walls when improper slide was used 🔥

  1. Place your chips on the slide.

  2. Use the glass rod to push the slide into the center of the tube, being careful to not scratch the inside of the tube too much. Start the timer.

  3. Place the rod on top of the tube furnace (it will be hot).

Removing chips

  1. Use the glass rod to push the slide to the other end of the tube.

    1. Push the slide all the way to the end until it is reachable.

    2. Put the rod on top of the tube furnace (it will be hot).

  2. Wait a few minutes for the slide to cool down.

  3. Use metal tweezers to take the slide out. Don't use the orange ones because they don't close all the way.

  4. Put the slide on a heat resistant surface and wait 5 minutes before handling the chip.

Safety

The furnace is obviously very hot. Keep away from any hot parts of the furnace. The rod will heat up in the few seconds that it is inside the tube, so when removing it, only hold it by the end.

The rod and tube also channel heat out of their ends via internal reflection of radiation.

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