Sumco Corporation

Etsurou Morita

Akihiko Endo

Isoroku Ono

Tatsumi Kusaba

Hidehiko Okuda

Shinji Okawa

Kazuo Hujie

Koji Matsumoto

Nobuyuki Morimoto

Hideki Nishihata

Eiji Kamiyama

Yoshihisa Nonogaki

Masaharu Ninomiya

Tomoyuki Hora

Ritarou Sano

A wafer surface measuring apparatus which measures a surface of the wafer by irradiating a laser beam on a wafer comprising a measuring stage that supports the outer edge of the wafer and loads the wafer in a manner not contacting the rear surface of the wafer and the stage surface, a wafer carrying means that moves the wafer over the measuring stage and loads the wafer on the measuring stage from an upward side, a rotary drive unit which rotates the measuring stage, and an ejection hole formed at a center portion of the stage surface to supply gas to a rear surface of the wafer loaded on the measuring stage. The wafer carrying means includes a chuck which sucks and holds the surface of the wafer in a non-contact manner and bends the wafer in an upwardly convex shape.

Wafer surface measuring apparatus

A semiconductor wafer is produced at a step of forming a lattice relaxation or a partly lattice-relaxed strain relaxation SiGe layer on an insulating layer in a SOI wafer comprising an insulating layer and a SOI layer, wherein at least an upper layer side portion of the SiGe layer is formed on the SOI layer at a gradient of Ge concentration gradually decreasing toward the surface and then subjected to a heat treatment in an oxidizing atmosphere.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor wafer by forming a strain relaxation SiGe layer on an insulating layer of SOI wafer

There is provided a bonded wafer having excellent thickness uniformity after thinning but also good surface roughness and being less in defects. In the production method of a bonded wafer by bonding a wafer for active layer to a wafer for support substrate and thinning the wafer for active layer,

Method for producing bonded wafer

The thickness of a semiconductor wafer layer, extending from a mirror-finished surface thereof to a solid-state image sensing device, is measured. Based on the residual thickness data, plasma etching is performed from the mirror-finished surface until a predetermined thickness is reached by controlling the plasma etching amount. By doing this, it is possible to reduce variation in the thickness of the solid-state image sensing device at low cost without causing an increase in the number of processes.

Method of controlling film thinning of semiconductor wafer for solid-state image sensing device

A wafer is produced at a step of polishing a predetermined face of a wafer to flatten the predetermined face while supplying a polishing liquid onto a bonded abrasive cloth, wherein the bonded abrasive cloth comprises a urethane bonding material consisting of a soft segment having a polyfunctional isocyanate and a hard segment having a polyfunctional polyol and having an expansion ratio of 1.1-4 times and silica having an average particle size of 0.2-10 &#x3bc;m and a hydroxy group, and has a given ratio of the hard segment occupied in the urethane bonding material, a given volume ratio of silica and a given Shore D hardness.

Wafer and method of producing the same

A direct bonded SOI wafer having an entire buried oxide film layer covered and not exposed is manufactured by: (A) forming a laminated body by laminating a semiconductor wafer and a support wafer via an oxide film; and (B) forming a thin-film single crystal silicon layer on the support wafer using a buried oxide film layer by film-thinning the semiconductor wafer to a predetermined thickness. In a process (C) the entire buried oxide film layer is covered by a main surface on the laminating side of the support wafer and the single crystal silicon layer. The covering of the entire buried film layer is carried out by, between process (A) and (B), removing the oxide film formed on the circumferential end edge of the main surface on the laminating side and the chamfered portion to leave the oxide film only on the laminated surface except the circumferential end edge.

Method for manufacturing direct bonded SOI wafer and direct bonded SOI wafer manufactured by the method

A processing time required for regeneration of a layer transferred wafer is reduced and the regeneration cost is lowered, while a removal amount at the regeneration is decreased the number of regeneration times is increased. A main surface of a semiconductor wafer () has a main flat portion () and a chamfered portion () formed in the periphery of the main flat portion (), an ion implanted area () is formed by implanting ions only into the main flat portion (), a laminated body () is formed by laminating the main flat portion () on a main surface of a support wafer (), and moreover, the semiconductor wafer () is separated from a thin layer () in the ion implanted area () by heat treatment at a predetermined temperature so as to obtain a thick layer transferred wafer (), which is to be regenerated. The main flat portion () of the semiconductor wafer () is formed to have a ring-shape step () protruding from the chamfered portion (), and the semiconductor wafer () is separated from the thin layer () on the whole surface of the ion implanted area () so that no step is generated in the periphery thereby to obtain the layer transferred wafer ().

Process for regeneration of a layer transferred wafer and regenerated layer transferred wafer

This SOI substrate includes a base substrate which includes a single-crystal semiconductor and an active layer which includes a single-crystal semiconductor and is bonded to the base substrate with an oxide film therebetween. The oxide film is formed only in the active layer. The active layer is formed with a thickness of 10 to 200 nm and a thickness variation throughout the active layer of 1.5 nm or less by etching a surface of the active layer while selectively using only the reactive radicals generated by a plasma etching process.

Silicon-on insulator substrate and method for manufacturing the same

A bonded wafer is produced by bonding an ion-implanted wafer for an active layer onto a wafer for a supporting substrate, and thereafter exfoliating the wafer for the active layer at the ion-implanted position through a heat treatment and then polishing a terrace portion of the resulting active layer with a predetermined fixed grain abrasive cloth to remove island-shaped projections on the terrace portion while controlling a scattering of terrace width and smoothness of an outer peripheral face of the active layer.

Bonded wafer and method of producing the same

The object of the invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an SOI layer which is devoid of damages, has a reduced variation in thickness, and is uniform in thickness. The object is met by providing a method for manufacturing an SOI substrate comprising the steps of forming an oxide film at least on one surface of a first silicon substrate, implanting hydrogen ions from the surface of the first silicon substrate thereby forming an ion-implantation zone in the interior of the first silicon substrate, bonding the first silicon substrate over a second silicon substrate with the oxide film interposed thereby forming a laminated assembly, subjecting the laminated assembly to a first heating treatment consisting of heating at a specified temperature, so that the first silicon substrate is split at the ion-implantation zone thereby manufacturing a bonded substrate, flattening the exposed surface of the SOI layer by subjecting the bonded substrate to wet etching, subjecting the bonded substrate to a second heating treatment consisting of heating at 750 to 900&#xb0; C. in an oxidative atmosphere thereby reducing damages inflicted to the SOI layer, and subjecting the resulting bonded substrate to a third heating treatment consisting of heating at 900 to 1200&#xb0; C. thereby enhancing the bonding strength of the bonded substrate.

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Tokyo, Japan

Etsurou Morita