Electronics
specialty materials

Deposition is a process that typically uses silicon or metal precursors (e.g. silane, dichlorosilane, tungsten hexafluoride). 

Reactants are specialty materials added during the deposition process, for example ammoniac, nitrous oxide or nitric oxide, to form silicon dioxide, silicon oxide (silane + nitrous oxide) or silicon nitride (silane + ammoniac).

Doping is a process of modifying the electronic properties of layers through adding controlled concentrations of boron, arsenic or phosphorous atoms. This is achieved using volatile dopants such as diborane, phosphine or arsine, along with other specialty materials during the deposition step, or by forcing the dopant implantation in the layers by ion implantation. In the latter process, isotopically enriched boron trifluoride or germanium can be used as a dopant.

Photolithography is the process of using a strictly controlled gas mixture concentration for excimer lasers. This is done to pattern the sacrificial photoresists on top of the surface layer and prepare the etching of the layer structure.

Etching uses halogenated gases, such as CxFy molecules like tetrafluoromethane, difluoromethane, or fluoromethane to remove elements from layers.

Cleaning is used to remove film residues left after successive depositions inside production tool chambers. Typically, fluorinated gases (e.g. nitrogen trifluoride, fluorine, sulfur hexafluoride) are used for cleaning.

Annealing, or the recovery of layer structure damages, is achieved with a heated atmosphere of hydrogen, deuterium or nitric oxide.