Harris Corporation

John P Short

George V Rouse

Craig J McLachlan

James R Zibrida

Paul S Reinecke

Charles Messmer

A bonding method including pressing a pair of slices together with a liquid oxidant therebetween and subjecting the pair of slices to a temperature to bond the slices together. Preferably a liquid oxidant is applied to one of the slices before they are pressed together and then dried. The heating step for bonding is carried out at a sufficiently high temperature of at least 1100.degree. C. to make the slices pliable so as to comply with each other during the bonding step.

Wafer bonding using trapped oxidizing vapor

Wafer bonding process employing liquid oxidant

A method of forming a high quality dielectrically isolated silicon on insulator semiconductor device using a double wafer bonding process. As a result of the double wafer bonding process, the invention significantly reduces the device limitations presently known with dielectric isolation and silicon on insulator structures. The present invention specifically eliminates the need for grinding or polishing the final surface which the devices will be implemented in, thereby eliminating the adverse effects which these mechanical processes impute onto these surfaces. Additionally, the present invention eliminates the need for a thick polycrystalline deposition for the production of the dielectric isolation, thereby eliminating the adverse effects of single crystal bulk defects and the loss of tolerance control due to warpage which would otherwise occur in a dielectric isolated process. Also as a result of the double bonding process, tighter tolerances and more precisely positioned final islands are achieved, thereby allowing for more densely packed or smaller circuits for a given application.

Dielectric isolation process using double wafer bonding

Plane indicating moats are formed extending through an epitaxial layer into a substrate simultaneous with the formation of the isolation moats which terminate within the epitaxial layer. The substrate is ground to a predetermined thickness after formation of the dielectric isolation and support structure. The composite structure is inserted in an etchant with conditions set to electrochemically etch only the substrate. The exposed plane indicating moats are used as a reference for a final polishing step.

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Indian Harbor Beach, FL, United States of America

John P Short