Showing papers by "Enakshi Bhattacharya published in 2006"

Physical Model for the Resistivity and Temperature Coefficient of Resistivity in Heavily Doped Polysilicon

Abstract: One of the key benefits of using polysilicon as the material for resistors and piezoresistors is that the temperature coefficient of resistivity (TCR) can be tailored to be negative, zero, or positive by adjusting the doping concentration. This paper focuses on optimization of the boron doping of low-pressure chemical vapor deposited polysilicon resistors for obtaining near-zero TCR and development of a physical model that explains quantitatively all the results obtained in the optimization experiments encompassing the doping concentration ranges that show negative, near-zero, and positive TCR values in the polysilicon resistors. The proposed model considers single-crystal silicon grain in equilibrium with amorphous silicon grain boundary. The grain boundary carrier concentration is calculated considering exponential band tails in the density of states for amorphous silicon in the grain boundaries. Comparison of the results from the model shows excellent agreement with the measured values of resistivity as well as TCR for heavily doped polysilicon. It is shown that the trap density for holes in the grain boundary increases as the square root of the doping concentration, which is consistent with the defect compensation model of doping in the amorphous silicon grain boundaries

Stiction force estimation from attachment length and electrostatic measurements on cantilever beams

Abstract: An estimate of stiction force, rather than the more commonly reported surface energy, helps design reliable structures. Stiction is a major cause of failure in surface micromachined structures. We report on the modeling and estimation of the stiction force from simple I-V curves on cantilever beams which can be measured even on packaged devices. We have fabricated oxide anchored cantilever beams of polysilicon by surface micromachining. Current is measured for an applied bias between the beam and the substrate. Pull-in and pull-out voltages are determined as the points of maximum slope calculated by differentiating a cubic spline fit to the measured I-V data. The commercial package CoventorWare was used to develop an empirical model for estimating the pull-out voltage for the cases when there is no stiction and in the presence of stiction. A model is developed for finding the stiction force from the simulated and the experimental pull-out voltages. The method uses only measured values of pull-in and pull-out voltages and the beam length and does not require the value of Young's modulus. We also discuss an independent visual method to estimate the process stiction force from the cantilever beam array that is normally used to estimate the surface adhesive energy. An analytical model is developed to calculate the stiction force from the attachment length of long stuck cantilever beams that are released in the same process.

Stable passivation technique for high-temperature polycrystalline silicon on insulator MOSFETs for MEMS integration

Abstract: A passivation technique is reported based on selective doping of the polycrystalline silicon grain boundaries with phosphorus. The polycrystalline silicon on insulator (PSOI) MOSFETs fabricated on films passivated by this method show considerable improvement in the overall performance compared with unpassivated devices. This technique is compatible with high-temperature micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) processes and hence can be used to integrate PSOI MOSFETs with MEMS structures and devices.