METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A SUBSTRATE

Abstract

A method of manufacturing a substrate is disclosed. The method comprises: providing a first semiconductor substrate, which includes an at least partially processed CMOS device layer and a layer of first wafer material; bonding a handle substrate to the partially processed CMOS device layer and removing the layer of first wafer material; providing a second semiconductor substrate having a layer of second wafer material which is different to silicon; bonding the first and second semiconductor substrates to form a combined substrate by bonding the layer of second wafer material to the partially processed CMOS device layer; and removing the handle substrate from the combined substrate to expose at least a portion of the partially processed CMOS device layer.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a substrate, comprising: (i) providing a first semiconductor substrate, which includes an at least partially processed CMOS device layer and a layer of first wafer material; (ii) bonding a handle substrate to the partially processed CMOS device layer and removing the layer of first wafer material; (iii) providing a second semiconductor substrate having a layer of second wafer material which is different to silicon; (iv) bonding the first and second semiconductor substrates to form a combined substrate by bonding the layer of second wafer material to the partially processed CMOS device layer; and (v) removing the handle substrate from the combined substrate to expose at least a portion of the partially processed CMOS device layer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second wafer material different to silicon includes a group III-V semiconductor material, or a material formed from combining different III-V semiconductor materials.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the group III-V semiconductor material includes GaN, InGaP, AlGaAs, InGaAsP, InGaN, AlGaN, GaAs, or InGaAs.

4. (canceled)

5. (canceled)

6. The method of claim 1, wherein prior to the bonding at step (ii), further comprising: performing plasma activation on the first semiconductor substrate and the handle substrate; washing the plasma-activated first semiconductor substrate and handle substrate with a deionized fluid; and drying the washed first semiconductor substrate and handle substrate.

7-13. (canceled)

14. The method of claim 1, wherein subsequent to step (ii) and prior to step (iv), further comprising annealing the first semiconductor substrate bonded with the handle substrate to increase the bonding strength between the handle substrate and partially processed CMOS device layer using nitrogen at a temperature of about 300 C. and at atmospheric pressure.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein step (ii) includes: removing at least a portion of the layer of first wafer material using mechanical grinding; depositing a layer of protective material on the handle substrate; and etching the first semiconductor substrate bonded with the handle substrate to substantially remove any remaining portions of the layer of first wafer material.

16-21. (canceled)

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the first semiconductor substrate includes a silicon-on-insulator substrate.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein the second semiconductor substrate includes a portion formed from a silicon-based material.

24. The method of claim 15, wherein the first semiconductor substrate at step (i) further includes a first layer of dielectric material arranged intermediate the partially processed CMOS device layer and layer of first wafer material, and wherein step (iv) includes: removing the first layer of dielectric material, subsequent to etching the first semiconductor substrate; depositing a second layer of dielectric material on the partially processed CMOS device layer to replace the removed first layer of dielectric material; and bonding the second layer of dielectric material to the layer of second wafer material of the second semiconductor substrate to form the combined substrate.

25. (canceled)

26. The method of claim 24, wherein prior to bonding the second layer of dielectric material to the layer of second wafer material, further comprising: forming a layer of electrically insulating material on the second layer of dielectric material.

27. (canceled)

28. The method of claim 15, wherein the first semiconductor substrate at step (i) further includes a first layer of dielectric material arranged intermediate the partially processed CMOS device layer and layer of first wafer material, and wherein step (iv) includes: depositing a second layer of dielectric material on the layer of second wafer material of the second semiconductor substrate; and bonding the first layer of dielectric material to the second layer of dielectric material to form the combined substrate.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein prior to bonding the first layer of dielectric material to the second layer of dielectric material, further comprising: forming respective layers of electrically insulating material on the first and second layers of dielectric material.

30. (canceled)

31. The method of claim 15, wherein the first semiconductor substrate at step (i) further includes a first layer of dielectric material arranged intermediate the partially processed CMOS device layer and layer of first wafer material, and wherein step (iv) includes: removing the first layer of dielectric material, subsequent to etching the first semiconductor substrate; depositing a second layer of dielectric material on the partially processed CMOS device layer to replace the removed first layer of dielectric material; depositing a third layer of dielectric material on the layer of second wafer material of the second semiconductor substrate; and bonding the second layer of dielectric material to the third layer of dielectric material to form the combined substrate.

32. The method of claim 15, wherein the first semiconductor substrate at step (i) further includes a first layer of dielectric material arranged intermediate the partially processed CMOS device layer and layer of first wafer material, and wherein step (iv) includes: depositing a second layer of dielectric material on the first layer of dielectric material, subsequent to etching the first semiconductor substrate; depositing a third layer of dielectric material on the layer of second wafer material of the second semiconductor substrate; and bonding the second layer of dielectric material to the third layer of dielectric material to form the combined substrate.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein prior to bonding the second layer of dielectric material to the third layer of dielectric material, further comprising: forming respective layers of electrically insulating material on the second and third layers of dielectric material.

34. The method of claim 26, wherein the electrically insulating material includes silicon nitride.

35. (canceled)

36. (canceled)

37. The method of claim 24, wherein the dielectric material is selected from the group consisting of aluminium oxide, aluminium nitride, silicon dioxide, synthetic diamond and boron nitride.

38-41. (canceled)

42. The method of claim 1, wherein the second semiconductor substrate includes a layer of third wafer material arranged adjacent to the layer of second wafer material, and wherein subsequent to step (iv) and prior to step (v), further comprising: (vi) removing the layer of third wafer material to expose the layer of second wafer material; (vii) depositing a layer of dielectric material on the exposed second wafer material; (viiii) providing at least one further semiconductor substrate having a layer of fourth wafer material which is different to silicon; and (ix) bonding the further semiconductor substrate to the combined substrate by bonding the layer of fourth wafer material to the layer of dielectric material.

43. (canceled)

44. The method of claim 42, wherein the fourth wafer material is same as, or different to the second wafer material.

45. The method of claim 42, wherein the fourth wafer material different to silicon includes a group III-V semiconductor material, or a material formed from combining different III-V semiconductor materials.

46-49. (canceled)

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0061] Embodiments of the invention are disclosed hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0062] FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a hybrid device, in which GaN is integrated with Si-CMOS on a SOI wafer, according to the prior art;

[0063] FIG. 2 includes FIGS. 2a to 2e, which depict steps of a method of manufacturing a combined substrate, according to an embodiment;

[0064] FIG. 3 is an infrared (IR) image of a first bonded wafer pair between a patterned SOI and a handle substrate, obtained at a first bonding stage of the method of FIG. 2.

[0065] FIG. 4 includes FIGS. 4a and 4b, which are respective IR images of a second bonded wafer pair between a SOI-handle substrate to an InGaAs/GaAs/Ge/Si wafer, and to a GaN/Si wafer, obtained at a second bonding stage of the method of FIG. 2;

[0066] FIG. 5 is an image showing the patterned SOI film peeling off from the SOI-InGaAs/GaAs/Ge/Si wafer of FIG. 4a after the Double Layer Transfer (DLT) process is completed;

[0067] FIG. 6 includes FIGS. 6a and 6b, which are Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) micrographs respectively showing corresponding cross-sectional views of a SOI-InGaAs/Ge/Si wafer, and a SOI-GaN/Si wafer;

[0068] FIG. 7 includes FIGS. 7a and 7b, which are Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images respectively showing corresponding cross-sectional views of a SOI-InGaAs/Ge/Si wafer, and a SOI-GaN/Si wafer;

[0069] FIG. 8 includes FIGS. 8a to 8d, in which FIGS. 8a and 8b are IR images of bonded wafer pairs (obtained at the second bonding stage) after being processed to address the pinholes problem by respectively performing Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) on a buried oxide (BOX) layer of the bonded wafer pair, and etching and replacing the BOX layer, whereas FIGS. 8c and 8d are respective IR images corresponding to FIGS. 8a and 8b subsequent to removal of the handle substrate;

[0070] FIG. 9 includes FIGS. 9a to 9d, in which FIGS. 9a and 9b are respective IR images of bonded wafer pairs (formed via bonding a PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer to another PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer) in an As bonded state and a Post bonded annealing state, whereas FIGS. 9c and 9d are respective IR images of bonded wafer pairs (where an additional Si.sub.3N.sub.4 layer is deposited on the respective PECVD SiO.sub.2 layers before bonding) in an As bonded state and a Post bonded annealing state;

[0071] FIG. 10 includes FIGS. 10a to 10f, which depict steps of a method of manufacturing a substrate, according to a different embodiment;

[0072] FIG. 11 is an image showing void-free bonding on a patterned SOI on a GaN/Si substrate obtained via the method of FIG. 10;

[0073] FIG. 12 includes FIGS. 12a to 12f, which depict steps of a method of manufacturing a substrate, according to an alternative embodiment;

[0074] FIG. 13 includes FIGS. 13a to 13e showing respective images of an example substrate processed at various stages of the method of FIG. 2;

[0075] FIG. 14 is a TEM image showing a cross-sectional view of layers of an example substrate obtained via the method of FIG. 2, in which the substrate is an integration of a GaN/Si wafer with a SOI substrate;

[0076] FIG. 15 includes FIGS. 15a and 15b, which are respective IR images of a bonded wafer pair (obtained by the method of FIG. 2) prior and subsequent to removing the handle substrate;

[0077] FIG. 16 is a schematic cross-sectional view of CMOS and High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMT) devices formed adjacent to one another, which may be electrically coupled using Si-CMOS backend processing; and

[0078] FIG. 17 includes FIGS. 17a to 17h, which depict steps of a method of manufacturing a substrate, according to a further embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0079] 1. Integration of Patterned SOI with III-V/Si

[0080] FIGS. 2a to 2e illustrate various steps for a proposed method 200 of manufacturing a substrate, according to a first embodiment. At step 202, a first semiconductor substrate 250 is provided, which includes (and arranged in the following top-down orientation): an at least partially processed CMOS device layer 252 (e.g. may be 2.1 m thick, but normally is about 1 m thick), a layer of dielectric material 254, and a layer of first wafer material 256. The layer of dielectric material 254 is sandwiched between the CMOS device layer 252 and layer of first wafer material 256. In this instance, the layer of dielectric material 254 (which is thermal oxidized) is silicon dioxide (e.g. may be 1.2 m thick, but normally is about 0.4 m thick), and is termed buried oxide (BOX) layer hereinafter for simplicity. But it is appreciated that other suitable dielectrics, such as aluminium oxide (Al.sub.2O.sub.3), aluminium nitride (AlN), synthetic diamond, boron nitride (BN) or the like, may also be used in place of silicon dioxide to improve thermal conductivity characteristics (for high power applications) and relevant optical properties (for photonics applications). The first wafer material 256 is formed from silicon-based materials, and in this case, is a silicon donor wafer. Also, the definition of partially processed CMOS device layer 252 here means that some basic lithographic patterns may have been made on said device layer 252. As a whole, the first semiconductor substrate 250, may (for example) be a patterned silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate (e.g. of about 200 mm size.

[0081] At step 204, a handle substrate 258 (e.g. of about 200 mm size) is bonded to the CMOS device layer 252 (e.g. using a wafer bonder) to enable removal of the layer of first wafer material 256. Specifically, the handle substrate 258 is bonded to a surface of the CMOS device layer 252 that is in opposition to another surface where the layer of first wafer material 256 is attached to the CMOS device layer 252. The handle substrate 258 is formed of silicon (e.g. a silicon handle (001) wafer), but does not preclude other suitable materials from being used. It is to be appreciated that prior to performing step 204, the first semiconductor substrate 250 and handle substrate 258 may optionally be plasma activated for about thirty seconds using a nitrogen plasma, megasonic rinsed with a deionized fluid (e.g. deionized water) and then substantially dried (e.g. via spin-drying or using an IPA dryer). Plasma activation is primarily carried out to prepare surfaces of the first semiconductor substrate 250 and handle substrate 258, at an atomic level to be optimal for subsequent bonding.

[0082] In addition, plasma activation is used to clean and rid surfaces of the first semiconductor substrate 250 and handle substrate 258 of any hydrocarbon contaminants and to activate the said surfaces. Nitrogen plasma is selected in this instance for its resultant high bonding strength (compared to oxygen/argon plasma) in a bonding-equipment used in this embodiment. The surface hydrophilicity of the BOX layer 254 is increased (i.e. water droplet surface contact angle smaller than 5) after the plasma exposure. It is also to be appreciated that in other embodiments, the duration of the plasma activation may be arranged to be anywhere from three seconds to one min (or possibly even longer, depending on the plasma activation device used). The gas used for the plasma activation may also be oxygen, argon, hydrogen or helium. Alternatively, the first semiconductor substrate 250 and handle substrate 258 may instead be treated using UV ozone, rather than using plasma, which still has the same cleaning effect. The megasonic rinsing step not only removes contaminants and cleans the surfaces of the first semiconductor substrate 250 and handle substrate 258, but also populates the associated surfaces with a high density hydroxyl (OH) group to facilitate the bonding at step 204. Step 204 is then carried out after the cleaning, rinsing and drying steps.

[0083] Immediately after step 204, the first semiconductor substrate 250 (now bonded with the handle substrate 258) may be annealed to increase and enhance the bonding strength between the handle substrate 258 and the CMOS device layer 252. In particular, the annealing is performed (for about three hours) using nitrogen ambient at a temperature of about 300 C. and at atmospheric pressure. The annealing may also be carried out using other suitable gases such as oxygen (O.sub.2), hydrogen (H.sub.2), forming gas (a H.sub.2+N.sub.2 mixture), and argon (Ar).

[0084] At next step 206, the layer of first wafer material 256 is removed from the first semiconductor substrate 250. Particularly, the layer of first wafer material 256 is at least partially removed using mechanical grinding (e.g. until the layer of first wafer material 256 becomes about 50 m thick), and then followed by depositing (e.g. spin coating) a layer of protective material (e.g. ProTEK B3-25, silicon dioxide or silicon nitride) on the handle substrate 258. Subsequently, the first semiconductor substrate 250 (bonded with the handle substrate 258) is etched to substantially remove any remaining portions of the layer of first wafer material 256 (that are not removed by the mechanical grinding). In this context, etching includes using wet (chemical) etching or dry etching, wherein wet etching involves arranging the first semiconductor substrate 250 to be submerged in a solution of tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH), until no existence of bubbles is observed. The TMAH solution is heated and maintained at a temperature of about 80 C. for the etching. It is to be appreciated that the BOX layer 254 serves as an etch-stop layer during the wet-etching process. With removal of the layer of first wafer material 256, the first semiconductor substrate 250 is considered as being temporarily transferred to the handle substrate 258. After etching the first semiconductor substrate 250, the protective material is removed from the handle substrate 258 using oxygen plasma configured with a power of about 800 W. Alternatively, the coating of protective material is removable using an appropriate solvent, such as acetone, methyl isoamyl ketone (MIAK) or methyl ethyl ketone (MEK).

[0085] At further step 208, a second semiconductor substrate 260 is first provided, which includes (and arranged in the following top-down orientation): a layer of dielectric material 262, a layer of second wafer material 264 (which is different to silicon), and a layer of third wafer material 266. The layer of dielectric material 262 is similar to the BOX layer 254 of the first semiconductor substrate 250, and is deposited on the layer of second wafer material 264 using Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapour Deposition (PECVD). So for simplicity sake, the layer of dielectric material 262 is hereinafter referred to as the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262. The deposited PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer ensures that the surface roughness of the layer of second wafer material 264 is reduced to smaller than 1 nm to facilitate the fusion bonding later carried out at step 208. The layer of third wafer material 266 is simply a silicon-based substrate. The second wafer material 264 is a group III-V semiconductor material, which may include (for example): GaN, InGaP, AlGaAs, InGaAsP, InGaN, AIGaN, GaAs, InGaAs, or any suitable combinations thereof, or the like. So the second semiconductor substrate 260 may also be termed as an III-V/Si (e.g. InGaAs/GaAs/Si or GaN/Si) wafer. It is to be appreciated that provision of the second semiconductor substrate 260 may optionally also be carried out initially at step 202, if desired.

[0086] It is to be highlighted that in cases where the second semiconductor substrate 260 is a InGaAs/GaAs/Ge/Si wafer, a 200 mm Si (100) starting substrate with 6 off-cut towards the [110] direction is used. If the second semiconductor substrate 260 is a GaN/Si wafer, a 200 mm Si (111) starting substrate is used instead. Both the InGaAs/GaAs/Ge/Si and GaN/Si wafers may be grown epitaxially using Metalorganic Chemical Vapour Deposition (MOCVD) or Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). Due to the high RMS roughness of the III-V/Si wafer, the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 deposited on the layer of second wafer material 264 serves as a capping layer for planarization process, as well as providing a bonding interface subsequently. Additional densification is carried out (at a suitable temperature between 300 C. to 850 C.) to eliminate any residual gas molecules and by-products incorporated into the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 during the oxide deposition. In this case, the densification process is done at 450 C. for several hours in a nitrogen environment. After densification, the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 is planarized using Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) process. To prepare for the bonding process at step 208, the first semiconductor substrate 250 (obtained at step 206) and the second semiconductor substrate 260 are first positioned relative to each other such that the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 and BOX layer 254 directly face each other. In this embodiment, for illustration purpose, the first semiconductor substrate 250 is positioned above the second semiconductor substrate 260, and so, it will be appreciated that the first and second semiconductor substrates 250, 260 are arranged diametrically to each other in this position. But to generalise, all that is required for the bonding is to bring the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 and BOX layer 254 into contact together and then bonding them (e.g. using, fusion bonding or thermal compression bonding, which can be further strengthened optionally with annealing).

[0087] Without loss of generality, at step 208, the first semiconductor substrate 250 is then bonded to the second semiconductor substrate 260 to form a combined substrate 268, which involves bonding the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 and BOX layer 254 together. So in this case, a bonding interface is formed between the BOX layer 254 (of the first semiconductor substrate 250) and the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 (of the second semiconductor substrate 260). The combined substrate 268 may be annealed to increase the bond strength between the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 and BOX layer 254, in which the annealing is performed using a gas selected from the group consisting of oxygen (O.sub.2), hydrogen (H.sub.2), nitrogen (N), and argon (Ar), but other types of suitable gases may also be used (depending on circumstances) and not limited to the above options stated. So broadly, the bonding step may be viewed as bonding the layer of second wafer material 264 of the second semiconductor substrate to the CMOS device layer 252 of the first semiconductor substrate 250 to form the combined substrate 268, in which the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 and BOX layer 254 serve as a bonding medium/agent.

[0088] To clarify, the combined substrate 268 includes the following layers (described in top-down orientation): the handle substrate 258, the CMOS device layer 252, a bonded layer of dielectric material (formed from the BOX layer 254 and PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262), the layer of second wafer material 264 and the layer of third wafer material 266. It is to be appreciated that a thickness of the layer of second wafer material 264 grown on the second semiconductor substrate 260 may vary as suitably desired, based on requirements of applications intended for the combined substrate 268. Similarly, a thickness of the bonded layer of dielectric material 254, 262 formed may vary as required, by adjusting respective thicknesses of the BOX layer 254 and PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 as initially formed, depending on applications intended for the combined substrate 268.

[0089] At next step 210, the handle substrate 258 is removed from the combined substrate 268 to expose at least a portion (e.g. an entire surface) of the CMOS device layer 252 providing a final substrate 270, which may be further processed for intended applications. In particular, the handle substrate 258 is removed using mechanical grinding and then the final substrate 270 is wet etched to substantially remove any remaining portions of the handle substrate 258, not removable by the mechanical grinding.

[0090] It is to be appreciated that for the proposed method 200, only described steps 202-210 are required as a bare minimum; the other steps are optional or need not be performed as part of the method 200. It will be apparent by now that the method 200 involves a Double Layer Transfer (DLT) process performed respectively at steps 204 and 208. That is, steps 204 and 208 respectively comprise first and second bonding stages. In summary, the method 200 is purposefully devised to utilise 3D wafer stacking for monolithically integrating III-V compound semiconductors and Si-CMOS devices on a common silicon-based platform to realize a side-by-side hybrid circuit without need to use through-silicon-vias (TSVs). That is, the final substrate 270 (at step 210) is a novel hybrid substrate which incorporates Si-CMOS devices and III-V semiconductors on a universal silicon platform. Also, damage to the Si-CMOS devices may be avoided because the III-V materials are grown separately, from the Si-CMOS devices, in desired high temperature environments, without being concerned about damaging the Si-CMOS devices in those high temperatures.

[0091] To examine the bonding quality of bonded wafer pairs (i.e. corresponding to the first semiconductor substrate 250 bonded with the handle substrate 258 obtained at step 204, or the combined substrate 268 obtained at step 208), an infrared (IR) camera is used for the investigation. Since the respective bandgaps of Si (i.e. 1.12 ev), GaAs (i.e. 1.42 ev), GaN (i.e. 3.4 ev) and SiO.sub.2 (i.e. 8.0 ev) are visible at the IR wavelength, any bonding defects such as voids/particles can easily be detected by shining IR light on one side of a bonded wafer pair (under investigation) and receiving the IR light transmitted through the bonded wafer pair by an IR camera located on the other side of the same bonded wafer pair. IR imaging is able to provide fast, non-destructive investigation, and allow ease of sample handling to determine the bonding quality of bonded wafer pairs. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is also used to further study the bonding interface of the bonded wafer pairs.

[0092] Accordingly, some experimental results obtained based on the proposed method 200 are discussed below. With reference to FIG. 3, which shows an infrared (IR) image 300 of an example first bonded wafer pair (obtained at the first bonding stage) corresponding to the first semiconductor substrate 250 (i.e. patterned SOI substrate) bonded with the handle substrate 258, it can be seen that the bonding quality of the bonding between the first semiconductor substrate 250 and handle substrate 258 is fairly excellent with no obvious particles or voids observed. Thereafter, the layer of first wafer material 256 (i.e. a silicon donor wafer) of the first bonded wafer pair is mechanically ground down to about less than 50 m. Subsequently, the TMAH solution is used to wet-etch any remaining portions of the layer of first wafer material 256 completely. It is observed that film delamination issue is found at around 6-7 mm from the edge of the first bonded wafer pair after wet-etching.

[0093] Also from FIG. 3, pinholes are observed on the surface of the BOX layer 254, which may be due to the BOX layer 254 being slightly etched by the TMAH solutioni.e. the BOX layer 254 is defective. Although thermal oxide tends to have high etching resistivity to the TMAH solution, the quality of the BOX layer 254 may be sub-standard (i.e. the BOX layer 254 is grown by wet thermal oxidation). Use of Chemical Mechanical Planarization (CMP) is thus proposed to solve the pinholes problem on the surface of the BOX layer 254. Specifically, defective portions of the BOX layer 254 with the pinholes are removed by CMP so that the pinholes are consequently eliminated. After performing CMP, the first bonded wafer pair is cleaned in a RCA solution (i.e. constituted as SC 1, NH.sub.4OH:H.sub.2O.sub.2:H.sub.2O=1:1:5 and SC 2, HCl:H.sub.2O.sub.2:H.sub.2O=1:1:6). Next, the second bonding stage at step 208 (e.g. between InGaAs/GaAs/Ge/Si to SOI-handle, or GaN/Si to SOI-handle) is carried out to form a second bonded wafer pair (corresponding to the combined substrate 268), and the corresponding results are shown in IR images 400, 450 of FIGS. 4a and 4b. Particularly, some un-bonded areas (i.e. depicted as circled areas in FIGS. 4a and 4b) are observed in the IR images 400, 450 because of the pinholes on the defective BOX layer 254. The whitish regions at the edge of the second bonded wafer pair (seen in FIG. 4a or 4b) are indications where film delamination has occurred due to the TMAH etching and hence no bonding was achieved in those whitish regions.

[0094] Next, the handle substrate 258 is removed by mechanical grinding and wet etching, as above described. Film delamination from (for example) the surface of the SOI-InGaAs/GaAs/Ge/Si wafer is observed, as shown in an image 500 of FIG. 5. It is to be highlighted that the peeling area may be related to the un-bonded areas observed in FIG. 4a. By comparing FIG. 4a and FIG. 5, it is seen that the peeling area is larger than the un-bonded areas because the bonding strength of surrounding areas to the un-bonded areas is weak and thus so, the film is further peeled off to a greater extent when the handle substrate 258 is removed.

[0095] Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) micrographs 600, 650 in FIGS. 6a and 6b respectively show corresponding cross-sectional views of a SOI-InGaAs/Ge/Si wafer and a SOI-GaN/Si wafer after step 210 is completed. For illustration purposes, it is highlighted that a dotted-dashed line 602 in FIG. 6a represents the bonding interface between the BOX layer 254 and the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262. However, this bonding interface is not substantially observable in FIG. 6b. It is to be appreciated that FESEM provides a relatively fast and straightforward method to observe the bonded layers without having to prepare thin lamellar film through Focusing Ion Beam (FIB) and ion milling.

[0096] For a more detailed assessment on the bonding quality between the bonded layers, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) may be used. The cross-sectional views of TEM images 700, 750 in FIGS. 7a and 7b respectively show a SOI-InGaAs/Ge/Si wafer and a SOI-GaN/Si wafer after step 210 is completed. From FIGS. 7a and 7b, no visible microvoids are observed at the bonding interface between the BOX layer 254 and the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262, which positively indicates that a uniform and relatively flawless bond has been successfully established on the microscale level.

[0097] Now jumping to FIG. 13, which includes FIGS. 13a to 13e that respectively show images of an example substrate at different processing stages of the method 200 of FIG. 2. Particularly, FIG. 13a is an IR image 1300 corresponding to the first semiconductor substrate 250 bonded with the handle substrate 258 obtained at step 204, FIG. 13b is an IR image 1302 of the first layer transfer, FIGS. 13c and 13d are respective IR images 1304, 1306 of oxide deposition and CMP performance on an SOI substrate and an GaN/Si substrate, and FIG. 13e is an IR image 1308 of the SOI-Si handle wafer bonded to the GaN/Si substrate (where it can be seen that the overall bonding quality is degraded with some trapped particles (i.e. circled areas) between the bonded pair). To briefly clarify, the term layer transfer is used interchangeably with the term bonding, in that bonding a given layer A (on a first substrate) to another layer B (on a second substrate) may be construed as transferring layer A from the first substrate to the second substrate.

[0098] Briefly, it is to be appreciated that subsequent to removal of the layer of first wafer material 256 from the first semiconductor substrate 250, the BOX layer 254 is now exposed on its front surface. So from FIG. 13b, it can be seen that the exposed BOX layer 254 has a mirror-like surface with very high reflection, indicating good process control was achieved in the mechanical grinding and (TMAH) etching process. In addition, the BOX layer 254 (deposited on the SOI substrate) also has a mirror-like surface with high reflection as shown in FIG. 13c.

[0099] A TEM image 1400 providing a cross-sectional view of respective layers of the SOI-Si handle wafer bonded to the GaN/Si substrate (of FIG. 13e) after the handle substrate is removed is depicted in FIG. 14, where it can be observed that all the layers are bonded uniformly without any visible microvoids. This confirms that a seamless bond at the microscale was successfully formed. The quality of the double bonding and layer transfer is further illustrated in FIGS. 15a and 15b, which are respective IR images 1500, 1550 of the bonded SOI-Si handle wafer with the GaN/Si substrate, prior and subsequent to removing the handle substrate. It is to be appreciated that the overall bonded area is almost about 100% with less than 5 mm of edge exclusion.

[0100] So using the proposed method 200 of FIG. 2, CMOS devices on silicon-based substrates and High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs)/LED devices on III-V substrates may separately be processed in CMOS foundries and SMART (HEMT/LED). Accordingly, as shown in an image 1600 of FIG. 16, the CMOS and HEMT/LED devices are formed and arranged adjacent to another one, and may later be electrically coupled via Si-CMOS backend processing.

[0101] The remaining configurations/embodiments will be described hereinafter. For sake of brevity, description of like elements, functionalities and operations that are common between the different configurations/embodiments are not repeated; reference will instead be made to similar parts of the relevant configuration(s)/embodiments.

[0102] With reference to sections 2-4, a first variant method 1000 of the method 200 of FIG. 2 is described below, based on a second embodiment.

[0103] 2. Replacement of BOX Layer by PECVD Oxide Layer

[0104] Due to the fact that CMP on the BOX layer 254 method introduces un-bonded areas in the second bonding stage at step 208, a method to cure the problem relating to the defective BOX layer 254 is proposed herein. In experiments conducted to assess effectiveness of the proposed method, an SOI substrate without pattern (for use as the first semiconductor substrate 250) is adopted, but is not to be construed as limiting. That is for the experiments, the CMOS device layer 252 used is completely unprocessed (but has a dielectric capping layer as will be known in the art), but otherwise, the first semiconductor substrate 250 has the same associated layers as described in the first embodiment. Same as previously, the SOI substrate is bonded to the handle substrate 258. Also, the layer of first wafer material 256 of the present SOI substrate is removed via mechanical grinding and wet (chemical) etching. A hydrofluoric (HF) solution (i.e. constituted as HF H.sub.2O=1:10) is used to substantially remove the defective BOX layer 254 which has a high density of pinholes. Thereafter, a PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer is deposited on the CMOS device layer 252, and the deposited PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer is smoothed using CMP. For investigation purposes, the resulting first semiconductor substrate 250 with the deposited PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer is bonded to another Si substrate (rather than to the second semiconductor substrate 260) to enable analysis and assessment of the proposed method.

[0105] Referring from FIG. 8 hereon, FIGS. 8a and 8b are IR images 800, 810 of bonded wafer pairs (obtained at the second bonding stage) after being processed to address the pinholes problem by respectively performing CMP on the BOX layer 254, and etching and replacing the BOX layer 254, whereas FIGS. 8c and 8d are respective IR images 820, 830 corresponding to FIGS. 8a and 8b subsequent to removing the handle substrate 258. As shown in FIG. 8b, the bonding quality is determined to be satisfactory with no visible particles/voids observed. In addition, no film delamination is observed after the handle substrate 258 is removed.

[0106] 3. PECVD Oxide Layer to PECVD Oxide Layer Bonding

[0107] Since the BOX layer 254 is now replaced by a PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer, a proposed bonding method to enable PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer to PECVD SiO.sub.2 bonding layer is hereby disclosed. In experiments conducted to assess effectiveness of the proposed bonding method, only Si substrates are used, and PECVD SiO.sub.2 is deposited on respective faces of two separate Si substrates. Same as previously, additional densification is carried out on the deposited PECVD SiO.sub.2 layers to drive out any gas molecules or residual by-products that may later cause unsuccessful bonding. After that, the surfaces of the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layers are subjected to CMP and subsequently bonded together at room temperature. FIG. 9a shows an IR image 900 of the as-bonded Si substrates. Then, the bonded Si substrates are annealed to further increase the bonding strength. However, a lot of voids are observed after the post-bonding annealing due to the outgassing issue, as shown in a second IR image 910 of FIG. 9b. This is because trapped water (H.sub.2O) in the porous PECVD SiO.sub.2 layers consequently reacts with the SiOH to produce silicon dioxide (SiO.sub.2) and hydrogen (H.sub.2). The hydrogen gas is trapped at the bonding interface and appears in the form of a plurality of voids. In addition, the trapped H.sub.2O in the SiO.sub.2 layer evaporates and becomes trapped at the bonding interface in vapour form. So to prevent afore discussed issues, it is proposed that an additional thin layer of electrically insulating material (e.g. Si.sub.3N.sub.4) be deposited on the respective PECVD SiO.sub.2 layers, and accordingly, corresponding IR images 920, 930 of the as-bonded and post-bonding annealing wafer pairs are respectively shown in FIGS. 9c and 9d. As depicted in FIG. 9d, a void-free bonding is beneficially achievable by coating the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layers with respective layers of electrically insulating material.

[0108] 4. Void-free Integrated Patterned SOI with III-V/Si

[0109] So, the first variant method 1000, which incorporates the proposed methods discussed in sections 2 and 3, is shown in FIG. 10. The variant method 1000 is adapted from the method 200 of the first embodiment, in which steps 1002-1006 are similar to steps 202-206 of method 200 and hence not described again for brevity. At next step 1008, the BOX layer 254 is removed from the CMOS device layer 252 (subsequent to etching the first semiconductor substrate 250 at step 1006), and a layer of dielectric material 1050 (e.g. PECVD SiO.sub.2) is deposited on the CMOS device layer 252 to replace the removed BOX layer 254. The layer of dielectric material 1050 may be termed a first PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 1050, and is also to be smoothed using CMP. Then, a first layer of electrically insulating material 1052a (e.g. Si.sub.3N.sub.4) is deposited on the first PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 1050.

[0110] At further step 1010, the second semiconductor substrate 260 is provided, but with a slight modification effected: a second layer of electrically insulating material 1052b (e.g. Si.sub.3N.sub.4) is deposited on the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 layer of the second semiconductor substrate 260 (i.e. a second PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262). The first and second semiconductor substrates 250, 260 are then bonded together to form a combined substrate 1054, which involves bonding the first and second PECVD SiO.sub.2 layers 1050, 262 together. More specifically, the respective surfaces of the first and second PECVD SiO.sub.2 layers 1050, 262 deposited respectively with the first and second layers of electrically insulating material 1052a, 1052b are bonded together (and annealing may be further performed if desired). Hence, the bonding interface here is formed between the first and second layers of electrically insulating material 1052a, 1052b. At step 1012, the handle substrate 258 is removed from the combined substrate 1054 to form a final substrate 1056, similar to step 210 as above discussed.

[0111] As shown in an image 1100 of FIG. 11, an example of a void-free patterned SOI on a GaN/Si substrate is obtained via the first variant method 1000, which is devised to address the pinholes and outgassing issues. It is also to be appreciated that through the DLT process, integration of Si-CMOS and III-V compound semiconductors on a common silicon-based platform becomes possible. Merits of the first variant method 1000 include enabling acceptable thermal budget and parallel processing of III-V and CMOS wafers.

[0112] A second variant method 1200 of the method 200 of FIG. 2 is described with reference to FIG. 12, based on a third embodiment. The second variant method 1200 is adapted from the method 200 of the first embodiment, in which steps 1202-1206 are similar to steps 202-206 of method 200 and hence not described for brevity. At next step 1208, the BOX layer 254 is removed (e.g. using an etchant such as the HF solution) from the CMOS device layer 252 (subsequent to etching the first semiconductor substrate 250 at step 1206), since the BOX layer 254 may be slightly over-etched and is thus defective. A layer of dielectric material 1250 (e.g. PECVD SiO.sub.2) of a sufficient thickness is next deposited on the CMOS device layer 252 to replace the removed BOX layer 254. The layer of dielectric material 1250 may be termed a PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer, and is smoothed by CMP.

[0113] At further step 1210, the second semiconductor substrate 260 is provided, but with slight modification: the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 of the second semiconductor substrate 260 previously in the first embodiment is not included in this instance. The first and second semiconductor substrates 250, 260 are then bonded together to form a combined substrate 1252, in which the bonding interface is formed by bonding together the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 1250 of the first semiconductor substrate 250 with the layer of second wafer material 264 of the second semiconductor substrate 260 (and annealing may be also performed if desired). At step 1212, the handle substrate 258 is removed from the combined substrate 1252 to form a final substrate 1254, similar to step 210 as above discussed.

[0114] A third variant method of the method 200 of FIG. 2 is disclosed, in accordance with a fourth embodiment. The third variant method is largely similarly to the method 200 of FIG. 2, except that an additional layer of dielectric material (e.g. PECVD SiO.sub.2) is now deposited on top of the BOX layer 254 (which may be defective due to being over-etched at step 206, as previously explained), subsequent to step 206 but prior to step 208. So in step 208, the bonding interface is then formed between the additional layer of dielectric material of the first semiconductor substrate 250 with the PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer 262 of the second semiconductor substrate 260.

[0115] In FIG. 17, a fourth variant method 1700 of the method 200 of FIG. 2 is described, based on a fifth embodiment. The fourth variant method 1700 has steps 1702-1708 are similar to steps 202-208 of method 200 and hence not repeated for brevity. At next step 1710, the layer of third wafer material 266 of the combined substrate 268 is removed (e.g. using a combination of mechanical grinding and etching with the TMAH solution) to expose the layer of second wafer material 264, and at step 1712, another layer of dielectric material 1750 (e.g. PECVD SiO.sub.2) is then deposited on the exposed layer of second wafer material 264. At further step 1714, a third semiconductor substrate 1752 is provided, which includes a layer of first wafer material 1754 (which is different to silicon), and a layer of second wafer material 1756. The layer of first wafer material 1754 is a group III-V semiconductor material, which may include (for example): GaN, GaAs, InGaAs or the like. In particular, the layer of first wafer material 1754 may be the same as or different to the layer of second wafer material 264 of the second semiconductor substrate 260, as required. The layer of second wafer material 1756 of the third semiconductor substrate 1752 is a silicon-based substrate. Thereafter at same step 1714, the third semiconductor substrate 1752 is bonded to the combined substrate 268 to obtain a secondary combined substrate 1758, in which the bonding interface is formed between the layer of first wafer material 1754 of the third semiconductor substrate 1752 and the layer of dielectric material 1750 deposited at step 1712. But it is also to be understood this is not to be construed as limiting, since the different various methods of enabling dielectric-to-dielectric bonding to achieve the bonding interface (as disclosed in the previous foregoing embodiments) may alternatively be used, if desired. At step 1716, the handle substrate 258 is removed from the secondary combined substrate 1758 to form a final substrate 1760, similar to step 210 as above discussed. Hence, it is to be appreciated that based on the fourth variant method 1700, as many III-V layers (e.g. three/four layers) as required may accordingly be formed in the same above described manner in the final substrate 1760.

[0116] Advantageously, the proposed method 200 (and the various disclosed variants) enables integration of III-V compound semiconductors (e.g. based on InGaAs/GaN) with SOI-CMOS (on SOD on a common silicon-based substrate (e.g. 200 mm diameter) via the DLT process to form a hybrid substrate. To summarise, the SOI-CMOS is first bonded temporarily to a handle substrate to realize a SOI-CMOS-handle substrate, and then an III-V/Si substrate is bonded to the SOI-CMOS-handle substrate. It is to be appreciated that oxide-to-oxide bonding may be used as a bonding medium, but should not be construed as limiting. Other alternative oxide-to-oxide bonding combinations (e.g. thermal SiO.sub.2 bond to PECVD SiO.sub.2 or PECVD SiO.sub.2 bond to PECVD SiO.sub.2) are also possible, as discussed. Further to achieve a bonding strength greater than 1000 mJ/cm.sup.2, the bonded wafer pair is annealed at 300 C. for about three hours in an atmospheric N.sub.2 ambient. Finally, a void free III-V/Si on SOI-CMOS on a common silicon-based substrate may be realized after the handle substrate is released.

[0117] To arrive at the foregoing disclosed embodiments, it is to be appreciated that the following bonding types were purposefully investigated to determine their application suitability: (1). PECVD SiO.sub.2 with nitride bonded layer to nitride with PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer bonding; (2). PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer with thermal oxide layer bonding; (3). PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer to PECVD SiO.sub.2 layer bonding; (4). PECVD SiO.sub.2/thermal oxide layer to semiconductor substrate bonding; and (5) semiconductor substrate to semiconductor substrate bonding.

[0118] While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, such illustration and description are to be considered illustrative or exemplary, and not restrictive; the invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practising the claimed invention.

[0119] For example, the handle substrate 258 may also be deposited on both its opposing surfaces with respective layers of dielectric material (e.g. silicon dioxide), prior to bonding the handle substrate 258 to the CMOS device layer 252 at one of the processed said surfaces. Each layer of the dielectric material deposited is thermally oxidized and may have a thickness of about 100 nm. Also, a thickness of any layer(s) of electrically insulating material/dielectric material deposited on the first/second semiconductor substrates 250, 260 described in any of the above embodiments may vary as desired, depending on applications intended for the associated final substrate formed. Further, the step of depositing a layer of electrically insulating material on a layer of dielectric material to obtain void-free bonding (if required), as disclosed in the second embodiment, will also be understood to be applicable, mutatis mutandis, to the remaining embodiments. In the fourth variant method 1700 of FIG. 17, the third semiconductor substrate 1752 may also already include a layer of dielectric material (e.g. PECVD SiO.sub.2) formed on the layer of first wafer material 1754, and thus then, the bonding interface attained at step 1714 is (modified to) alternatively be formed between this layer of dielectric material of the third semiconductor substrate 1752 with the layer of dielectric material 1750 deposited at step 1712.

[0120] Yet further, in all afore embodiments described, it is implicitly assumed that the CMOS device layer 252 also comprises a capping dielectric layer (i.e. typically known in the art as an inter-layer dielectric (ILD) or inter-metal dielectric (IMD)), which is arranged on a first face of the CMOS device layer 252 that opposes a second face of the CMOS device layer 252 that is in contact with the BOX layer 254. But however, if the ILD/IMD is not already included with the CMOS device layer 252 at step 202, 1002, 1202 or 1702, the ILD/IMD is then to be deposited on the handle wafer 258, on the first face of the CMOS device layer 252, or on both the handle wafer 258 and first face of the CMOS device layer 252, prior to performance of step 204, 1004, 1204 or 1704.

[0121] In addition, it is to be appreciated that the second wafer material 264 or the layer of first wafer material 1754 (described in the fourth variant method 1700) need not always be a group III-V semiconductor material; rather the second wafer material 264 (or the layer of first wafer material 1754) may simply be any suitable material (different to silicon), such as a group IV material (e.g. Ge), appropriate battery/memory materials, organics or II-VI semiconductors, or the like.

[0122] Further, the partially processed CMOS device layer 252 may be any kind of SOI, for example from ultra-thin SOI/FDSOI (of about 5-10 nm thickness) all the way to thick/bulk-like layers (of say about 5 m thickness). Similarly, the BOX layer 254 may have a thickness ranging from about 100 nm to 3 m. On the other hand, the first wafer material 256, the third wafer material 266 or the layer of second wafer material 1756 of the third semiconductor substrate 1752 may optionally be formed from non-silicon-based materials, such as sapphire-based wafers that would enable Silicon-on-Sapphire (SOS) substrates.