Silicon on sapphire

This article is about the manufacturing process. For the song "Silicone on Sapphire" by the Clash, see Sandinista!.

Silicon on sapphire (SOS) is a hetero-epitaxial process for integrated circuit manufacturing that consists of a thin layer (typically thinner than 0.6 microns) of silicon grown on a sapphire (Al₂O₃) wafer. SOS is part of the Silicon on Insulator (SOI) family of CMOS technologies. Typically, high-purity artificially grown sapphire crystals are used. The silicon is usually deposited by the decomposition of silane gas (SiH4) on heated sapphire substrates. The advantage of sapphire is that it is an excellent electrical insulator, preventing stray currents caused by radiation from spreading to nearby circuit elements. SOS faced early challenges in commercial manufacturing because of difficulties in fabricating the very small transistors used in modern high-density applications. This is because the SOS process results in the formation of dislocations, twinning and stacking faults from crystal lattice disparities between the sapphire and silicon. Additionally, there is some aluminum, a p-type dopant, contamination from the substrate in the silicon closest to the interface. SOS was first used in aerospace and military applications because of its inherent resistance to radiation. More recently, patented advancements in SOS processing and design have been made by Peregrine Semiconductor, allowing SOS to be commercialized in high-volume for high-performance radio-frequency (RF) applications.

Circuits and systems

A Silicon on Sapphire microchip designed by e-Lab [1]

The advantages of the SOS technology allow research groups to fabricate a variety of SOS circuits and systems that benefit from the technology and advance the state-of-the-art in:

• analog-to-digital converters (a nano-Watts prototype was produced by Yale e-Lab)
• monolithic digital isolation buffers
• SOS-CMOS image sensor arrays (one of the first standard CMOS image sensor arrays capable of transducing light simultaneously from both sides of the die was produced by Yale e-Lab)
• patch-clamp amplifiers
• energy harvesting devices
• three-dimensional (3D) integration with no galvanic connections
• charge pumps
• temperature sensors

Silicon on sapphire pressure and temperature sensors have been manufactured by Sensotron and Sensonetics utilizing a patented process by Armen Sahagen.

Peregrine Semiconductor's patented UltraCMOS SOS technology has been used in the development of RF integrated circuits (RFICs) including RF switches, digital step attenuators (DSAs), phase locked-loop frequency synthesizers, prescalers, mixers/upconverters, and VGAs. More recently, it introduced digitally tunable capacitors for RF impedance tuning. These RFICs are designed for commercial RF applications including mobile handsets and cellular infrastructure, broadband consumer and DTV, test and measurement, and industrial public safety, as well as rad-hard aerospace and defense markets.

A book on the subject is: "Silicon-on-Sapphire Circuits and Systems, Sensor and Biosensor interfaces" by Eugenio Culurciello published by McGraw Hill in 2009.

Substrate analysis - SOS structure

An example of an SOS product manufacturer is San Diego, California-based company Peregrine Semiconductor. The application of epitaxial growth of silicon on sapphire substrates for fabricating MOS devices involves a silicon purification process that mitigates crystal defects which result from a mismatch between sapphire and silicon lattices. The Peregrine PE42612 SP4T switch is formed on an SOS substrate where the final thickness of silicon is approximately 95 nm. Silicon is recessed in regions outside the polysilicon gate stack by poly oxidation and further recessed by the sidewall spacer formation process to a thickness of approximately 78 nm.

See also

• Silicon on insulator
• Radiation hardening