High-temperature processes

At the Fraunhofer Institute ENAS and the Center for Microtechnologies at Chemnitz University of Technology, various horizontal high-temperature furnaces from Centrotherm are available for annealing and annealing processes of substrates and the thermal oxidation of silicon as a modification step for wafers with a maximum diameter of 200 mm.

Tempering and annealing processes offer the possibility of healing defects or stimulating crystal growth in metals or alloys through targeted temperature control and gas selection in the produced layers. In addition, they serve to relieve stress in the produced layers or to support bonding processes. With the available technology, these process steps can also be carried out under hydrogen atmosphere or forming gas.

Both dry and oxidation processes under steam atmosphere are possible. Dry oxidation results in high-purity, thin and dense oxide layers, which serve, for example, as gate oxide of electrical insulation. To improve the layer quality, dry oxidation can be carried out with the addition of hydrogen chloride. Wet oxidation results in a faster build-up of thicker oxide layers, which are used as insulation or field oxide.

Competencies:

• Dry and wet oxidation
• annealing and annealing processes for defect reduction, crystal growth, bonding processes, stress relief
• variable temperature control and process gas selection, also hydrogen and forming gas
• wafer sizes up to 200 mm diameter