Method for producing a donor substrate for creating a three-dimensional integrated structure, and method for producing such an integrated structure
11239108 · 2022-02-01
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
H01L21/76814
ELECTRICITY
H01L21/76205
ELECTRICITY
H01L21/76254
ELECTRICITY
International classification
H01L21/00
ELECTRICITY
H01L21/762
ELECTRICITY
Abstract
A process for producing a donor substrate for creating a three-dimensional integrated structure comprises the following steps: providing a semiconductor substrate comprising a surface layer, referred to as an active layer, and a layer comprising a plurality of cavities extending beneath the active layer, each cavity being separated from an adjacent cavity by a partition, forming an electronic device in a region of the active layer located plumb with a cavity, depositing a protective mask on the active layer so as to cover the electronic device while at the same time exposing a region of the active layer located plumb with each partition, and implanting atomic species through regions of the active layer exposed by the mask to form a weakened zone in each partition.
Claims
1. A process for fabricating a donor substrate for the production of a three-dimensional integrated structure, comprising: providing a semiconductor substrate comprising an active surface layer and a layer comprising a plurality of cavities extending beneath the active surface layer, each cavity being separated from an adjacent cavity by a partition; forming an electronic device in a region of the active surface layer located plumb with a cavity, of the plurality of cavities; depositing a protective mask on the active surface layer so as to cover the electronic device while exposing a region of the active layer located plumb with each partition; and implanting atomic species through the regions of the active layer exposed by the mask to form a weakened zone in each partition.
2. A process for fabricating a three-dimensional integrated structure, formed of a stack of active layers provided with electronic devices, by transfer of a layer from a donor substrate to a receiver substrate, the process comprising: fabricating the donor substrate by a process according to claim 1; bonding the donor substrate to the receiver substrate, the surface of the donor substrate opposite the weakened zones relative to the active layer to be transferred being at the bonding interface, and detaching the donor substrate along the weakened zones to transfer at least one portion of the active layer to the receiver substrate.
3. The process of claim 2, further comprising, prior to implantation of atomic species to form a weakened zone in the partitions selectively etching the active layer to remove at least one portion of the active layer located plumb with a partition.
4. The process of claim 3, further comprising, prior to the implantation of atomic species to form a weakened zone in the partitions, forming trenches that extend in the partitions beyond the cavities to isolate at least one cavity from the other cavities.
5. The process of claim 4, further comprising, before the deposition of the protective mask, depositing an additional layer that forms an excess thickness on an active layer portion located plumb with the isolated cavity.
6. The process of claim 4, wherein the detachment of the donor substrate is carried out along the weakened zones formed by implantation of atomic species in partition parts resulting from the formation of the trenches, and the active layer portion located plumb with the isolated cavity is selectively transferred to the receiver substrate.
7. The process of claim 4, further comprising forming the semiconductor substrate by a method including: producing a plurality of cavities at the surface of a substrate to form the layer comprising the cavities; and transferring the active layer to the substrate to seal the cavities.
8. The process of claim 7, further comprising forming the cavities by dry etching and/or wet etching.
9. The process of claim 7, wherein the cavities are hollow.
10. The process of claim 7, further comprising forming the cavities by an electrochemical treatment.
11. The process of claim 1, further comprising forming the cavities by a method including: depositing a protective mask on a free surface of a substrate, the protective mask being positioned so as to make covered surface portions and uncovered surface portions; implanting atomic species in the substrate plumb with the surface portions not covered by the protective mask and forming implantation zones by exposing the face of the substrate covered with the mask to an incident flux of atomic species; and carrying out a thermal annealing of the substrate to form cavities at the implantation zones.
12. The process of claim 1, wherein each cavity comprises a porous medium having a porosity greater than or equal to 20% relative to the total volume of the cavity.
13. The process of claim 7, further comprising transferring the active layer to the cavity-containing layer by method including: implanting atomic species to form a weakened zone in a second donor substrate made of semiconductor material to delimit a layer of semiconductor material to be transferred; bonding the second donor substrate to the cavity-containing layer of the donor substrate, the surface of the layer to be transferred opposite the weakened zone relative to the layer to be transferred being at the bonding interface; and detaching the second donor substrate along the weakened zone to transfer the layer of semiconductor material to the substrate.
14. The process of claim 1, further comprising, prior to implantation of atomic species to form a weakened zone in the partitions, selectively etching the active layer to remove at least one portion of the active layer located plumb with a partition.
15. The process of claim 14, further comprising, prior to the implantation of atomic species to form a weakened zone in the partitions, forming trenches that extend in the partitions beyond the cavities to isolate at least one cavity from the other cavities.
16. The process of claim 15, further comprising, before the deposition of the protective mask, depositing an additional layer that forms an excess thickness on an active layer portion located plumb with the isolated cavity.
17. The process of claim 16, wherein the detachment of the donor substrate is carried out along the weakened zones formed by implantation of atomic species in partition parts resulting from the formation of the trenches, and the active layer portion located plumb with the isolated cavity is selectively transferred to a receiver substrate.
18. The process of claim 1, further comprising forming the semiconductor substrate by a method including: producing a plurality of cavities at the surface of a substrate to form the layer comprising the cavities; and transferring the active layer to the substrate to seal the cavities.
19. The process of claim 1, wherein the cavities are hollow.
20. A donor substrate comprising an active layer to be transferred to a receiver substrate, comprising: a layer comprising cavities, which extend in the thickness of the donor substrate and which are delimited by partitions; an active layer located on the cavity-containing layer, the active layer comprising at least one electronic device, each electronic device being arranged in a region of the active layer located plumb with a cavity; and weakened zones in at least one part of the partitions separating the cavities.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) Other advantages and features of the present disclosure will become apparent on reading the following description given by way of illustrative and nonlimiting example, with reference to the appended figures, in which:
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(15) A first subject of the present disclosure relates to a process for fabricating a donor substrate for the production of a three-dimensional integrated structure. The donor substrate is obtained from a semiconductor substrate, one embodiment of which is represented in
(16) With reference to
(17) The cavities 12 are regions of the substrate having a lower density than that of the rest of the substrate. The cavities may be hollow or consist of a porous medium. The cavities 12 extend into the thickness of the substrate 10 between a first depth (corresponding, in the example illustrated, to the upper surface of the substrate 1) and a second greater depth, and are separated from one another by partitions 13.
(18) The substrate 1, or at least the portion of substrate in which the cavities are produced, is fabricated from a crystalline semiconductor material, such as, for example, silicon, germanium, and alloys thereof, and also III/V semiconductor compounds comprising, by definition, at least one element from group III and at least one element from group V of the Periodic Table of the Elements.
(19) The cavities 12 represented schematically in
(20) The cavities 12 are separated from one another by partitions 13, which correspond to portions of the substrate 1 having a greater density, for example, the natural density of the material constituting the substrate 1. The partitions 13 therefore have a shape complementary to that of the cavities 12.
(21) Preferably, the cavities do not open onto the edge of the substrate, in order to avoid any untimely fracture initiation.
(22) The active layer 14 is arranged on the layer 11 comprising the cavities and covers the cavities 12. In other words, the cavities 12 are closed, each cavity being delimited in the thickness direction of the substrate by a portion of the active layer 14 and by the substrate 1, and in a direction parallel to the exposed surface of the substrate by two adjacent partitions 13.
(23) Starting from the semiconductor substrate 10 described above, electronic devices 15 are formed in regions 14A of the active layer 14 that are located plumb with the cavities 12, as
(24) The electronic devices 15 do not however extend into the regions 16 located plumb with the partitions 13.
(25) The fact of producing electronic devices on the semiconductor substrate (intended to form the donor substrate) before bonding it to the receiver substrate, makes it possible to avoid the constraints limiting the thermal budget for producing these electronic devices, unlike the processes known from the prior art in which the electronic devices are produced only after transfer of the active layer to a receiver substrate. Specifically, in the processes known from the prior art, the thermal budget for forming the electronic devices on the transferred active layer is limited in order not to degrade electronic devices already present in the receiver substrate.
(26) A protective mask 17 is then deposited on the active layer. This step is represented in
(27) The protective mask may be a resist or else a solid mask, for example, based on oxide or on nitride.
(28) Still with reference to
(29) The atomic species penetrate into the substrate 10 via the surface exposed regions of the active layer, and are implanted in the underlying partitions 13, at a depth determined by the implantation parameters. The atomic species form a weakened zone 19 in each partition, and all of the weakened zones, depicted in
(30) The atomic species that encounter the protective mask are themselves blocked by the mask and do not penetrate into the substrate.
(31) Preferably, the atomic species implanted are hydrogen ions and/or helium ions.
(32) A person skilled in the art is able to determine the implantation parameters, in particular, the nature of the atomic species, the dose and the energy of the species, in order to implant the atomic species at the desired depth in the partitions.
(33) The fact that the implantation is carried out after the formation of the electronic devices in the active layer makes it possible to avoid an untimely fracture of the donor substrate along the weakened zones. Specifically, the formation of the electronic devices uses thermal budgets that would be likely to initiate a fracture in a weakened zone formed beforehand.
(34) Thus, after removal of the mask, a donor substrate 20 is obtained that is used for the transfer of the active layer 14 to a receiver substrate, in accordance with the second subject of the present disclosure described hereinafter.
(35) A second subject of the present disclosure relates to a process for fabricating a three-dimensional integrated structure from a donor substrate as described above.
(36) An optional first step of this process involves depositing an oxide layer 21 on the active layer 14 to be transferred of the donor substrate 20, so as to cover the electronic devices 15. The deposition of the oxide layer 21 is represented in
(37) According to one embodiment, the surfaces intended for forming the bonding interface comprise portions of various natures, in order to create a so-called hybrid bonding, for example, an oxide-metal type bonding. Specifically, in order to create interconnections between the electronic devices of the stacked layers, connections may be envisaged that open onto the surface at the bonding interface, in particular, made of oxide. Thus, it is possible to have mixed bonding interface portions, such as, for example, the combination of the following mixed portions: oxide-oxide (Ox/Ox), metal-oxide (Me/Ox), metal-metal (Me/Me), oxide-metal-(Ox/Me). The metal is preferably copper.
(38) A smoothing of the exposed surface of the oxide layer 21 may then be carried out in order to reduce the roughness thereof and to further improve the quality of the bonding. A smoothing by chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) is particularly suitable for this purpose.
(39) The bonding of the donor substrate 20 to a receiver substrate 30 is then carried out.
(40) With reference to
(41) The receiver substrate 30 represented in
(42) With reference to
(43) The donor substrate 20 is then detached along the weakened zones 19 and cavities 12, as represented in
(44) After separation, the donor substrate 20, provided with its layer comprising cavities, is retained. The donor substrate is consequently reusable for transferring other active layers to the same receiver substrate 30, or to a different receiver substrate, in order to produce a stack of active layers and to form an integrated structure, by repetition of the steps described above.
(45) Given that the partitions 13 have been fractured, partition fractions 35 have also been transferred with the active layer to the receiver substrate. Consequently, the height of the partitions 13 and, respectively, the height of the cavities 12 of the donor substrate after transfer are slightly reduced, without however compromising the reuse of the donor substrate.
(46) A treatment of the free surface of the transferred active layer is therefore preferably carried out in order to remove the partition fractions 35.
(47) When a buried oxide layer 21 has been deposited on the donor substrate before bonding, the transferred active layer is preferentially treated by chemical etching in order to remove the partition fractions without adversely affecting the buried oxide layer. For example, a chemical etching based on tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) is suitable.
(48) The three-dimensional final structure 40 obtained is represented in
(49) The donor substrate may then be reused to carry out the transfer of a new active layer to the receiver substrate. In order to do this, a new active layer is formed on the donor substrate, which covers the cavities, then the steps of forming the electronic devices on the active layer, optionally deposition of an oxide layer, deposition of a protective mask on the electronic devices, implantation of atomic species in the partitions, bonding, and detachment of the donor substrate are repeated.
(50) The active layer 14 is preferably transferred from a second donor substrate to the cavity-containing layer of the semiconductor substrate, according to the Smart Cut™ process (not represented).
(51) In detail, an implementation of atomic species is carried out in order to form a weakened zone in the second donor substrate, in order to delimit the active layer to be transferred.
(52) Next the second donor substrate is bonded to the cavity-containing layer of the substrate. During the bonding, the surface of the active layer to be transferred opposite the weakened zone relative to the layer to be transferred is at the bonding interface.
(53) The second donor substrate is then detached along the weakened zone in order to transfer the active layer to the substrate.
(54) The cavities 12 of the donor substrate are preferably formed according to the embodiments described hereinafter with reference to
(55) According to a first embodiment, the cavities 12 are formed in the substrate 1 represented in
(56) The etching makes it possible to obtain hollow cavities. The etching has the advantage of being commonly used in the field of the fabrication of semiconductor structures, so that the implementation thereof is relatively simple. It is specified that techniques other than etching may be suitable on condition that they make it possible to form hollow cavities.
(57) The formation of the cavities 12 is followed by the transfer of the active layer 14 so as to cover the cavities, as represented in
(58) According to a second embodiment, the cavities 12 are formed in the substrate 1 represented in
(59) Such a treatment involves locally forming porosities by application of an electric current, and is commonly denoted by “electrochemical-porosification.”
(60) This electrochemical treatment makes it possible to obtain cavities consisting of a porous medium. The porosity of the cavities formed is preferably greater than or equal to 20%, and more preferably greater than or equal to 30%, relative to the total volume of the cavity.
(61) The formation of the cavities 12 is followed by the transfer of the active layer 14 so as to cover the cavities, as represented in
(62) According to a third embodiment, the cavities 12 are formed in the substrate 1 represented in
(63) This begins with the deposition of a protective mask 2 on a free surface of the substrate. The mask makes covered surface portions and uncovered surface portions 3.
(64) The face of the substrate covered by the mask is then exposed to an incident flux of atomic species 4 in order to implant atomic species in the substrate. This is preferably a flux of hydrogen ions and/or of helium ions.
(65) The atomic species penetrate into the substrate via the portions 3 not covered by the mask, and are implanted plumb with the uncovered zones. The atomic species implanted in the substrate are represented in
(66) The atomic species that encounter the protective mask are themselves blocked by the mask and do not penetrate into the substrate.
(67) A person skilled in the art is able to determine the implantation parameters, in particular, the nature of the atomic species, the dose and the energy of the species, in order to implant the atomic species in the substrate, at the desired depth.
(68) An annealing of the substrate is then carried out in order to develop the defects (platelets) created by the implantation to form cavities 12 in the implantation zones. The substrate thus obtained is represented in
(69) Unlike the first and second embodiments, the active layer 14 is defined as being the surface layer delimited by the cavity-containing layer 11 (cf.
(70) Optionally, an oxide layer as described above is then deposited on the active layer so as to cover the electronic devices, in order to improve the bonding.
(71) According to one embodiment represented in
(72) Such a selective etching makes it possible to make the partitions more accessible to the incident flux and improves the implantation of the atomic species in the partitions and also the feasibility of the fracturing of the partitions during the detachment of the donor substrate. Specifically, the atomic species thus penetrate into the substrate by the hollowed out portions 23 located plumb with the partitions 13, without passing through the active layer 14.
(73) This embodiment is particularly advantageous when the active layer has a sizeable thickness, i.e., of from 1 μm (micrometer) to a few micrometers, which has a tendency to limit the implantation. Owing to these recesses, the implantation of the atomic species is no longer limited by the thickness of the active layer.
(74) According to one embodiment represented in
(75) The trenches 24 extend into the thickness of the substrate beyond the cavities 12, i.e., more deeply than the cavities.
(76) The trenches 24 make it possible to isolate a given cavity, and therefore, in particular, a given electronic device located plumb with the cavity, in order to subsequently enable the selective transfer thereof to the receiver substrate.
(77) A trench 24 separates a partition into two portions 13A, 13B, of which a first portion delimits a first cavity 12A plumb with which is an electronic device, and a second portion delimits a second cavity 12B adjacent to the first cavity, plumb with which is another electronic device.
(78) The trenches are made all around the portion of active layer to be transferred, in the corresponding partitions. For example, in the case of a cubic cavity such as the cavities 12A, 12B, and 12C, the cavity is delimited by four partitions, and each of the partitions is pierced by a trench.
(79) With reference to
(80) The partition portions 13A that delimit the cavity 12A of active layer to be transferred protrude laterally from the active layer portion, the protrusion being captioned by the reference 16A in
(81) The other partition portions 13B, 13C, which delimit active layer portions 14B, 14C adjacent to the active layer portion 14A to be transferred, do not themselves protrude from their respective active layer portion 14B, 14C.
(82) Thus, during the step of implanting the atomic species, the partition portions 13A that delimit the active layer portion 14A to be transferred are exposed to the incident flux. The atomic species are then implanted in the exposed partition portions.
(83) The other partition portions 13B, 13C, which delimit active layer portions 14B, 14C adjacent to the active layer portion to be transferred, are not themselves exposed to the incident flux, so that the atomic species are not implanted therein.
(84) Thus weakened zones 19 are formed in each of the partition portions delimiting the active layer portion 14A to be transferred.
(85) Next, the donor substrate is bonded to the receiver substrate, then the given active layer portion 14A is detached along the weakened zones 19 of the partition portions 13A, which makes it possible to selectively transfer the active layer portion 14A to the receiver substrate, while the rest of the active layer 14 remains on the donor substrate.
(86) The description of this selective transfer given with reference to
(87) According to one preferred embodiment, an additional layer of excess thickness 25 is deposited on the active layer portion 14A to be transferred, prior to the deposition of the protective mask, in order to form an excess thickness. The additional layer then lies between the active layer portion and the protective mask.
(88) After removal of the mask, and optionally deposition of an oxide layer on the active layer and surface treatment, preferably by CMP, the active layer portion 14A with excess thickness 25 is transferred to the receiver substrate 30.
(89) The formation of an excess thickness 25 makes it possible to further individualize the active layer portion(s) to be transferred, and thus to simplify the transfer thereof. Specifically, during the bonding, only the raised active layer portions come into contact with the receiver substrate. A simple detachment of the donor substrate by fracturing of the corresponding partition portions makes it possible to transfer the desired electronic devices to the receiver substrate, while the other active layer portions remain at a distance from the receiver substrate, and remain on the donor substrate.
(90) It is then possible to deposit an additional layer on one or more of the remaining active layer portions on the donor substrate in order to form excess thicknesses, so as to transfer the remaining portions to another receiver substrate.
(91) The process described therefore makes it possible to selectively transfer electronic devices from a donor substrate to one or more different receiver substrates, by reusing the same donor substrate.