Techniques and Challenges for 300 mm Silicon: Processing, Characterization, Modelling and Equipment

The activities of the semiconductor industry to introduce a new, large wafer diameter were triggered by expected potential overall savings - cost and resource - and an anticipated increasing demand for Silicon wafers. In the beginning, around 1994, agreement on the diameter of the next wafer generation had to be achieved and finally 300 mm was globally accepted to be the next wafer diameter, a decision obtained at international summits in 1994/1995, based on the work of a SEMI task force.

Several workshops on 300 mm wafers have been held by SEMI, JSNM and other organizations during the past few years. However, the present E-MRS conference on Techniques and Challenges for 300 mm Silicon: Processing, Characterization, Modeling and Equipment was the first international scientific conference about this subject.

The papers - invited as well as submitted - cover a wide range of subjects, financial issues, fab concepts, crystal growth, wafer process development, material and defect issues, wafer characterization and provide an excellent review of the present status of 300 mm technology.

Preface. The 300 mm technology - global opportunity for industry and challenges for research (H. Richter et al.). 300 mm conversion challenge and breakthrough for future semiconductor manufacturing (P. Kuecher et al.). Automation and fab concepts for 300 mm wafer manufacturing (H. Binder, A. Honold). Large diameter silicon technology and epitaxy (H. Yamagishi et al.). Challenges for economical growth of high quality 300 mm CZ Si crystals (E. Tomzig et al.). 300 mm epitaxy: challenges and opportunities from a wafer manufacturer's point of view (P.-O. Hansson, M. Fuerfanger). Study of oxygen transport in Czochralski growth of silicon (G. Müller et al.). Vacancy distribution measurements in CZ Si crystals grown by different pulling rate (Y. Takano et al.). Uniform precipitation of oxygen in large diameter wafers (G. Kissinger et al.). Effect of the structural state of the melt on the properties of silicon crystals (A.Ya. Gubenko). Characterization of 300 mm silicon-polished and EPI wafers (S. Shih et al.). Three hundred-mm wafers: a technological and an economical challenge (H. Dietrich et al.).