Miller Design and Equipment - New and Used Refurbished Equipment for the Semi-conductor Industry
Microscope Terms | Fab Terms | Misc. Terms
|
Miller Design and Equipment - New and Used Refurbished Equipment for the Semi-conductor Industry
|
|
|
Back End Referencing semiconductor manufacturing, the package assembly and test stages of production, includes burn-in and environmental test functions.
Bonded Wafer Composite dielectrically isolated substrate formed by fusing together (at high temperature) the oxidized surfaces of two individual silicon substrates.
Bonding The process of connecting wires from the package leads to the chip (or die) bonding pads. Part of the assembly process. A small-diameter gold or aluminum wire is bonded to the pad area by a combination of heat and ultrasonic energy.
Bipolar A class of semiconductor device in which both holes and electrons act as charge carriers. Any device that carries current across a pn-junction is a bipolar device.
Bipolar Transistor An active semiconductor device formed by two p-n junctions whose function is amplification or switching of an electric current. Bipolar transistors have three sections: emitter, base, and collector.
Chemical Etching An acid bath to remove surface damage and to make the silicon crystal slices thinner.
Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) A process of flattening and polishing a wafer by combining chemical removal with mechanical buffing.
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) A gaseous process that deposits insulating films or metal onto a wafer at an elevated temperature.
Chip A semiconductor material, single crystalline in nature, which one or multiple active or passive solid-state devices are formed.
Circuit Combination of electrical or electronic components, interconnected to perform one or more specific functions.
CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) A MOS technology in which both p-channel and n-channel components are fabricated on the same die to provide integrated circuits that use less power than those made with other MOS or bipolar processes.
CMP (Chemical-Mechanical Polish) Or Planarization; the process of improving the semiconductor's surface.
Coating The process of applying photoresist to a wafer, generally by dispensing a small amount of photoresist in the center of a wafer and then spinning the wafer at a high rate to spread and dry the photoresist (aka spin coating).
Complementary A term describing ICs that employ components of both polarity types connected in such a way that operation of either is complemented. A complementary bipolar circuit employs both NPN and PNP transistors. A complementary CMOS circuit (CMOS) employs both n-channel and p-channel devices.
Deposition The process in which materials are deposited onto a substrate. Usually refers to thin conducting or insulating films used to form MOS gates, capacitors, thin-films resistors, and the interconnect system for an IC.
Die A single square or rectangular piece of semiconductor material into which a specific electrical circuit has been fabricated.
Die Area The length of a die multiplied by the width of the die.
Die Bonding The method of securing the die to a package with conductive adhesives or metal alloys.
Die Cost The cost to produce a good die through the wafer fabrication and wafer test steps.
Die Size The size of a die. May be expressed as the length time the width or in area.
Die Sort The process of sorting out good and bad die on a wafer .
Die Yield The number of good die divided by the number of die tested .
Diode A two electrode semiconductor device that utilizes the rectifying properties of a p-n junction or a point contact .
DIP (Dual In-line Package) The most common IC package, which can be either plastic or ceramic. Circuit leads or pins extend symmetrically outward and downward from opposite sides of the rectangular package body.
Discrete Device A class of electronic components that includes power transistors and rectifiers, each of which contain one active element. In contrast, ICs typically contain hundreds, thousands, or millions of active elements in a single die.
Dopant An impurity element that is deliberately added to a semiconductor.
Electrical Conductivity The ability of a material to carry an electric current; it is the reciprocal of resistivity with units of ohm [-1] cm [-1]
Electrical Resistance The measure of the difficulty of electric current to pass through a given material; its unit is the ohm.
Elementary Semiconductor A semiconductor made of a single element, Silicon is the primary example, though both Carbon (Diamond) and Germanium are also elementary semiconductors. This type of semiconductor usually exhibits a diamond crystal lattice.
Encapsulation Term used to describe the packaging of the chip.
Epitaxy The controlled growth of one material on another. In IC manufacturing, this often means that an n-type epitaxial layer is grown by deposition on a p- type substrate.
Extrinsic semiconductor A semiconductor material that has been doped with an n-type or p-type element .
Fab (Fabrication) Referencing semiconductor manufacturing, fabrication usually refers to the front-end process of making devices and integrated circuits in semiconductor wafers, but does not include the package assembly (back- end) stages.
FEOL (Front End Of Line) The first steps of the IC fabrication process where the individual active devices (transistors, resistors, etc.) are patterned in the semiconductor.
Forward Bias Bias applied to a p-n junction in the conducting direction, majority carrier electrons and holes flow toward the junction so that a large current flows.
Front End The fabrication process in which the integrated circuit is formed in and on the wafer.
Gate The control electrode or control region that exerts an effect on a semiconductive region that it is directly associated with, so that the conductivity characteristics of the semiconductive region are altered in a temporary manner - often resulting in an on-off type switching action.
Ground Loop Noise An undesirable voltage generated in the common reference of a relatively low-level signal circuit by magnetic fields or by the return or reference currents produced by relatively high-power circuits connected to the same circuit reference (ground). This is a potentially detrimental condition, generally caused by poor circuit layout of a PC board.
Gullwing A common lead form used to connect surface mounted packages to the printed-circuit board. Package sits on top of the PCB.
Integrated Circuit (IC) A single semiconductor chip or wafer which now contains thousands or millions of circuit elements per square centimeter.
Isolation An electrical separation between areas of an integrated circuit.
Isotropic A material with properties that are the same in all directions.
Junction The line or plane where the level of P Doping and N doping are equal.
Laser Acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, a light amplification process or device that is used to produce monochromatic coherent radiation in the infrared, visible, and ultraviolet regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Light Emitting Diode (LED) A semiconductor p-n junction device that is optimized to release light of approximately the band gap energy when electrons fall from the conduction band to the valence band. A diode that emits monochromatic (single color) light when forward biased. The emitted light can be red, yellow, orange, green, blue, or non-visible infrared.
Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) A display having conductive segments or dots deposited on the inside surfaces of two transparent glass plates separated by a crystal in liquid form. When energized with AC voltage in the presence of light, the selected segments will provide a black-tone or gray readout.
Monolithic IC Technology A technique of circuit fabrication where all of the devices in a circuit are placed on the same chip.
MOSFET Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor.
N-Type Silicon doped with phosphorous becomes a substance with loosely held electrons. This is called n-type silicon.
NPN Transistor Bipolar transistor with n-type emitter and collector regions separated by a p-type base
Optoelectronic Device Device that is responsive to or that emits or modifies light waves. Examples: LEDs, optical couplers, laser diodes, and photo detectors opto- electronic are materials that can either produce an electric current from light or produce light from a current.
Outdiffusion Solid-state diffusion of impurities from the substrate underneath into the grown layer during its deposition.
P-Type Silicon doped with acceptor impurity (III) such as boron (p-type silicon).
P-Type Semiconductor The density of electrons in the conduction band is exceeded by the density of holes in the valence band. P-type behavior is induced by the addition of acceptor impurities, such as boron, to the crystal structure of silicon.
Package The sealed, protective container that houses an electronic component or die. External terminals provide electrical access to the components inside. Packages provide for power and signal distribution, power dissipation, and protection of the circuits.
PCB A thin board which electronic components are fixed by solder. Component leads and integrated circuit pins may pass through holes ("vias") in the board or they may be surface mounted, in which case no holes are required.
Phosphorus (P) N-type dopant commonly used for the emitter diffusions in standard bipolar IC technology.
Photodetector A device capable of sensing light and converting it to electricity.
PN-Junction The interface and / or region of transition between p-type and n-type semiconductors.
PN-Junction Diode A (switching) device having two terminals connected to opposite type semiconductors with a junction, and exhibiting a non-linear current-voltage characteristic
PNP Transistor A semiconductor junction transistor with a p-type collector and emitter, and an n-type base. Current amplification arises from the injection of holes from the emitter into the base, and their subsequent collection in the collector.
QFP (Quad Flat Pack) A common package for ICs with higher pin counts.
Rectifier A circuit component, usually a diode that allows current to flow in one direction unimpeded but allows no current flow in the other direction.
Resistor A device used in electric circuits to limit the current flow or to provide a voltage drop.
Reverse bias Bias applied to a p-n junction in a direction for which the flow of current is inhibited; majority carrier electrons and holes flow away from the junction.
Reverse Gullwing Acommon lead form used to connect surface mounted packages to the printed-circuit board. Package sits under of the PCB.
RTO (Rapid Thermal Oxidation) An oxidation process performed in a rapid thermal processing (RTP) tool.
RTP (Rapid Thermal Processing) A single-wafer processing tool that uses high intensity lights or other sources to heat and cool the wafer in milliseconds.
Semiconductor A material whose electrical conductivity is midway between that of an good conductor and a good insulator; a type of material having a lower energy Valence band that is nearly completely filled with electrons and a higher energy Conduction band that is nearly completely empty of electrons, with a modest energy gap between the two bands; pure materials usually exhibit electrical conductivity that increases with temperature because of an increase in the number of charge carriers being promoted to the Conduction band.
Semiconductor Device An electronic device whose essential characteristics are governed by the flow of charge carriers within a Semiconductor.
Semicustom IC An integrated circuit in which a portion of the circuit function is predefined and unalterable, while other portions can be configured to meet the designer's specific needs. Semicustom ICs can be analog, digital, or mixed- signal.
SIT (Static Induction Transistor) A short-channel field effect transistor, usually used in High Power RF systems.
SOP (Small Outline Package) Similar to a miniature plastic flat pack, but with gullwing leadforms primarily or wholly constructed for surface mounting. Also called an SO package.
SOS (Silicon-On-Sapphire) A type of SOI technology in which a layer of silicon is epitaxially grown on a sapphire wafer, with specific regions subsequently etched away between individual transistors. Each device is thus totally isolated from other devices.
Substrate The underlying material on which a microelectronic device is built. Such material may be electrically active, such as silicon, or passive, such as aluminum ceramic
Surface States These are states (within the bandgap, similar to dopants) at the edge of the semiconductor crystal that arise from incomplete covalent bonds, very thin oxides or other impurities, and other effects from crystal termination.
Test Wafers Wafers that are processed through part or all of a fabrication sequence and then used to measure the results of the processing.
TFT (Thin Film Transistor) Transistors formed in polycrystalline or amorphous silicon layers. used in AM display for pixel driving control. Active matrix displays provide sharper images than passive matrix displays.
Thermistor A resistive circuit component having a high negative temperature coefficient of resistance so that its resistance decreases as temperature increases.
Thyristor A family of semiconductor devices that exhibit bi-stable current-voltage characteristics and can be switched between a high-impedance, low-current "off" state and a low-impedance, high-current "on" state. Primarily used for power switching applications.
Vapor Deposition A processing step in the manufacture of optical glass fiber to reduce the inherent metallic impurities in the material, thereby minimizing light distortion.
VCSEL Abbreviation for Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser. VCSEL is a laser diode that emits light in a cylindrical beam vertically from the surface of a wafer, in contrast to edge emitting lasers. VCSELs have applications in fiber optic communications devices, bar code scanning operations, optical storage, laser printing, and encoders.
Wafer A round thin slice disc (10-30 mils thick) of a semiconductor material (silicon), typically four to eight inches in diameter that is used as the substrate for active solid-state devices in discrete or monolithic integrated circuit form.
Wafer Fabrication The series of steps used to build an IC or device in and on a wafer.
Wafer Fabrication Facility (Wafer Fab or Fab) A facility where the wafer fabrication process is performed. Fabs include a high quality cleanroom as well as support systems such as ultrapure water, gas and chemical generation and delivery systems, waste water treatment, extension HVAC equipment, as well as other support functions.
Wafer Probe The test step where each individual die on a wafer surface is tested and bad die are marked as bad. Also called wafer test or wafer sort.
Wafer Size The diameter of a wafer ranging from 4, 5, 6, 8 or 12 inch wafers (4-inch wafer is 100 millimeters , 3.937 inches).
Wafer Yield The number of wafers completed through the wafer fabrication process, divided by the numbers of wafers started into the wafer fabrication process, multiplied by 100.
Yield The number of good units after testing.
|
|
Last modified: 05/06/09 |
