Abstract:
Metal-organic substrate adhesion is improved by irradiating the substrate with low energy reactive ions, electrons, or photons to alter the chemical composition of a surface layer of the substrate to a depth of from about 1 nm to a few tens of nanometers. The energy of the incident reactive ions and electrons can be in the range of about 50 to 2000 eV, while the energy of the incident photons can be in the range of about 0.2 - 500 eV. Irradiation of the substrate can occur prior to or during metal deposition. For simultaneous metal deposition/particle irradiation, the arrival rates of the metal atoms and the substrate treatment particles are within a few orders of magnitude of one another. The low energy irradiation can be conducted at room temperature or elevated temperatures.
Abstract:
Simultaneous noncontact testing of voltages across a full line of test sites (2) on an integrated circuit chip-to-test (1) is achieved with high time resolution using photoelectron emission induced by a pulsed laser (3) focussed to a line (4) on the chip-to-test, together with high speed electrostatic deflection perpendicular to the line focus. Photoelectrons produced by the line focus of pulsed laser light are imaged to a line on an array detector (5), the measured photoelectron intensities at array points along this line representing voltages at corresponding points along the line illuminated by the laser focus. High speed electrostatic deflection applied to plates (7) during the laser pulse, perpendicular to the direction of the line focus, disperses the line image - (column) on the array detector across a sequence of sites at right angles (rows), thereby revealing the time-dependence of voltages in the column of test sites with high time resolution (in the picosecond ' range).
Abstract:
The method comprising covering metal test pads (4) of an integrated circuit chip-to-test (11), with a photon-transmissive passivation layer (2) susceptible to photon assisted tunneling, covering the layer (2) with a thin conductive photon-transparent overlayer (3), and then accessing the test pads through the passivation layer and conductive overlayer, by a pulsed laser to provide voltage-modulated photon-assisted tunneling through the insulation layer, to the conductive overlayer as an electron current, and detecting the resulting electron current, thus providing a nondestructive test of integrated circuits. The passivation, normally present to protect the integrated circuit, also lowers the threshold for photoelectron emission. The conductive overlayer acts as a photoelectron collector for the detector. A chip-to-test which is properly designed for photon assisted tunneling testing has test sites accessible to laser photons even though passivated. Such a chip-to-test may be nondestructively tested in air at one or several stages of its processing, without the sacrifices of mechanical probing or of bringing test sites out to output pads.
Abstract:
The fabrication of rough Si surfaces with control of the roughness density, roughness length scale, and morphology on a nanometer scale is disclosed using 1) a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, typically in the 1 - 5 mTorr range, and 2) initial surface conditions and operating parameters such that initial growth is nucleation-controlled, e.g., using a thermal SiO2 surface which is relatively unreactive to SiH4 at an operating temperature below about 700 DEG C, and typically in the range of 500 - 600 DEG C. This broad temperature window enhances the feasibility of manufacturing rough silicon surfaces with broad applications. Further, various methods are presented for achieving surface pretreatment to control the size and density of the initial nuclei preparatory to the performance of the foregoing fabrication process. In addition, a method is disclosed for producing on a substrate surface, directly and in-situ, a pattern of submicrometer sized dots such that the dot center surface density and the total dot surface area coverage can be precisely controlled, using the features of the fabrication process with additional steps to achieve the desired dots. Particular applications include fabricating rough Si surfaces as (1) electrodes for high capacitance density structures for high density DRAM and (2) as substrates for low-stiction magnetic disks.
Abstract:
Simultaneous noncontact testing of voltages across a full line of test sites (2) on an integrated circuit chip-to-test (1) is achieved with high time resolution using photoelectron emission induced by a pulsed laser (3) focussed to a line (4) on the chip-to-test, together with high speed electrostatic deflection perpendicular to the line focus. Photoelectrons produced by the line focus of pulsed laser light are imaged to a line on an array detector (5), the measured photoelectron intensities at array points along this line representing voltages at corresponding points along the line illuminated by the laser focus. High speed electrostatic deflection applied to plates (7) during the laser pulse, perpendicular to the direction of the line focus, disperses the line image - (column) on the array detector across a sequence of sites at right angles (rows), thereby revealing the time-dependence of voltages in the column of test sites with high time resolution (in the picosecond ' range).
Abstract:
The fabrication of rough Si surfaces with control of the roughness density, roughness length scale, and morphology on a nanometer scale is disclosed using 1) a low pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process, typically in the 1 - 5 mTorr range, and 2) initial surface conditions and operating parameters such that initial growth is nucleation-controlled, e.g., using a thermal SiO2 surface which is relatively unreactive to SiH4 at an operating temperature below about 700 DEG C, and typically in the range of 500 - 600 DEG C. This broad temperature window enhances the feasibility of manufacturing rough silicon surfaces with broad applications. Further, various methods are presented for achieving surface pretreatment to control the size and density of the initial nuclei preparatory to the performance of the foregoing fabrication process. In addition, a method is disclosed for producing on a substrate surface, directly and in-situ, a pattern of submicrometer sized dots such that the dot center surface density and the total dot surface area coverage can be precisely controlled, using the features of the fabrication process with additional steps to achieve the desired dots. Particular applications include fabricating rough Si surfaces as (1) electrodes for high capacitance density structures for high density DRAM and (2) as substrates for low-stiction magnetic disks.