Transmission electron microscopy of 1/4-micron SOI structures

Author(s):  
J. R. Conner ◽  
N. D. Theodore ◽  
S. C. Arney ◽  
C. B. Carter ◽  
N. C. MacDonald

As silicon devices are scaled into the submicron regime, parasitic circuit elements due to wiring and junction capacitance become increasingly significant. One way to reduce these parasitic elements is to fabricate circuits in thin silicon layers on an insulating substrate. Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) structures can be fabricated by various techniques, including ion implantation of oxygen, recrystallization of amorphous or polycrystalline silicon films deposited on insulating thin films, and oxidation of porous silicon. A new SOI technique, in which islands of silicon become isolated from the silicon substrate during a thermal oxidation step, has been optimized for submicron-width silicon structures. The large stresses associated with the two-dimensional oxidation give rise to the generation and propagation of dislocations in the silicon island during the oxidation sequence. The characterization and removal of these dislocations is an important factor in optimizing these structures.TEM samples have been prepared to evaluate the defect configurations present in these novel submicron SOI structures.

1987 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Sinclair ◽  
A. H. Carim ◽  
J. Morgiel ◽  
J. C. Bravman

ABSTRACTSome typical microstructural studies of polycrystalline silicon using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) are described, including the application of this material for assisting TEM investigations themselves. Examples include oxidation and realignment of polysilicon thin films, the structure of polysilicon in EEPROM devices, polysilicon in trench capacitors and measurement of SiO2 layer thicknesses with polysilicon overlayers. It is also shown tha grain growth in heavily phosphorus doped polysilicon films can be followed by in situ heating in the TEM.


Author(s):  
L. Tang ◽  
G. Thomas ◽  
M. R. Khan ◽  
S. L. Duan

Cr thin films are often used as underlayers for Co alloy magnetic thin films, such as Co1, CoNi2, and CoNiCr3, for high density longitudinal magnetic recording. It is belived that the role of the Cr underlayer is to control the growth and texture of the Co alloy magnetic thin films, and, then, to increase the in plane coercivity of the films. Although many epitaxial relationship between the Cr underlayer and the magnetic films, such as ﹛1010﹜Co/ {110﹜Cr4, ﹛2110﹜Co/ ﹛001﹜Cr5, ﹛0002﹜Co/﹛110﹜Cr6, have been suggested and appear to be related to the Cr thickness, the texture of the Cr underlayer itself is still not understood very well. In this study, the texture of a 2000 Å thick Cr underlayer on Nip/Al substrate for thin films of (Co75Ni25)1-xTix dc-sputtered with - 200 V substrate bias is investigated by electron microscopy.


Author(s):  
C. Ewins ◽  
J.R. Fryer

The preparation of thin films of organic molecules is currently receiving much attention because of the need to produce good quality thin films for molecular electronics. We have produced thin films of the polycyclic aromatic, perylene C10H12 by evaporation under high vacuum onto a potassium chloride (KCl) substrate. The role of substrate temperature in determining the morphology and crystallography of the films was then investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM).The substrate studied was the (001) face of a freshly cleaved crystal of KCl. The temperature of the KCl was controlled by an electric heater or a cold finger. The KCl was heated to 200°C under a vacuum of 10-6 torr and allowed to cool to the desired temperature. The perylene was then evaporated over a period of one minute from a molybdenum boat at a distance of 10cm from the KCl. The perylene thin film was then backed with an amorphous layer of carbon and floated onto copper microscope grids.


Author(s):  
J. T. Sizemore ◽  
D. G. Schlom ◽  
Z. J. Chen ◽  
J. N. Eckstein ◽  
I. Bozovic ◽  
...  

Investigators observe large critical currents for superconducting thin films deposited epitaxially on single crystal substrates. The orientation of these films is often characterized by specifying the unit cell axis that is perpendicular to the substrate. This omits specifying the orientation of the other unit cell axes and grain boundary angles between grains of the thin film. Misorientation between grains of YBa2Cu3O7−δ decreases the critical current, even in those films that are c axis oriented. We presume that these results are similar for bismuth based superconductors and report the epitaxial orientations and textures observed in such films.Thin films of nominally Bi2Sr2CaCu2Ox were deposited on MgO using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). These films were in situ grown (during growth oxygen was incorporated and the films were not oxygen post-annealed) and shuttering was used to encourage c axis growth. Other papers report the details of the synthesis procedure. The films were characterized using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).


2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 662-669 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Simões ◽  
F. Viana ◽  
A.S. Ramos ◽  
M.T. Vieira ◽  
M.F. Vieira

AbstractReactive multilayer thin films that undergo highly exothermic reactions are attractive choices for applications in ignition, propulsion, and joining systems. Ni/Al reactive multilayer thin films were deposited by dc magnetron sputtering with a period of 14 nm. The microstructure of the as-deposited and heat-treated Ni/Al multilayers was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) in plan view and in cross section. The cross-section samples for TEM and STEM were prepared by focused ion beam lift-out technique. TEM analysis indicates that the as-deposited samples were composed of Ni and Al. High-resolution TEM images reveal the presence of NiAl in small localized regions. Microstructural characterization shows that heat treating at 450 and 700°C transforms the Ni/Al multilayered structure into equiaxed NiAl fine grains.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document