Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-30T20:09:51.014Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Computer simulation of target link explosion in laser programmable redundancy for silicon memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

L.M. Scarfone
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05405
J.D. Chlipala
Affiliation:
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Allentown, Pennsylvania 18103
Get access

Abstract

Pulses of Q-switched Nd-YAG radiation have been used to remove polysilicon target links during the implementation of laser programmable redundancy in the fabrication of silicon memory. The link is encapsulated by transparent dielectric films that give rise to important optical interference effects modifying the laser flux absorbed by the link and the silicon substrate. Estimates of these effects are made on the basis of classical plane-wave procedures. Thermal evolution of the composite structure is described in terms of a finite-difference form of the three-dimensional heat diffusion equation with a heat generation rate having a Gaussian spatial distribution of intensity and temporal shapes characteristic of commercial lasers. Temperature-dependent thermal diffusivity and melting of the polysilicon link are included in the computer modeling. The calculations account for the discontinuous change in the link absorption coefficient at the transition temperature. A threshold temperature and corresponding pressure, sufficiently high to rupture the dielectric above the link and initiate the removal process, are estimated by treating the molten link as a hard-sphere fluid. Numerical results are presented in the form of three-dimensional temperature distributions for 1.06 and 0.53 μm radiation with pulse energies 3.5 and 0.15μJ, respectively. Similarities and differences between heating effects produced by long (190 ns FWHM/740 ns duration) and short (35 ns FWHM/220 ns duration) pulses are pointed out.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1Cenker, R. P., Clemons, D. G., Huber, W. R., Petrizzi, J. B., Procyk, F. J., and Trout, G. M., ISSCC Dig. Tech. Papers 22, 150 (1979).Google Scholar
2DeSimone, R. R., Donofrio, N. M., Flur, B. L., Kruggel, R. H., Leung, H. H., and Schnadt, R., ISSCC Digest of Technical Papers 22, 154 (1979).Google Scholar
3Mano, T., Wada, M., Ieda, N., and Tanimoro, M., IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits SC-17, 726 (1982).Google Scholar
4Smith, R. T., Chlipala, J. D., Bindels, J. F. M., Nelson, R. G., Fischer, F. H., and Mantz, T. F., IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits SC-16, 506 (1981).Google Scholar
5Minato, O., Masuhara, T., Sasaki, T., Sakai, Y., and Yoshizaki, K., IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits SC-16, 449 (1981).Google Scholar
6Grinberg, A. A., Mekhtiev, R. F., Ryvkin, S. M., Salmanov, V. M., and Yaroshetskii, I. D., Fiz. Tverd. Tela (Lenigrad) 9, 1390 (1967) [Sov. Phys.-Solid State 9,108 5 (1967)]; A. Elci, M. O. Scully, A. L. Smirl, and J. C. Matter, Phys. Rev. B 16, 191 (1977); R. F. Wood and G. E. Jellison, Jr., in Semiconductors and Semi-Metals, edited by R. F. Wood, C. W. White, and R. T. Young (Academic, New York, 1984), Vol. 23. These authors list various important mechanisms for the absorption of radiation in semiconductors, identified by the relation between the laser photon energy and the energy gap. In lightly doped silicon the main mechanism, at the present wavelengths, is the creation of electron-hole pairs that recombine, releasing energy to the crystalline lattice. For heavily doped silicon, the mechanism is the same as that for metals, namely, the transfer of energy from excited conduction (and valence) electrons to the lattice.Google Scholar
7The importance of interference effects in laser processing of composite layer structures has been considered in many discussions in the literature. Examples can be found in the following references: North, J. C., J. Appl. Phys. 48, 2419 (1977); A. Kestenbaum, J. Appl. Phys. 50, 5012 (1979); G. Yaron, L. D. Hess, and S. A. Kokorowski, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices ED-27, 964 (1980); I. D. Calder, R. Sue, and E.-E. A. A. Aly in Laser and Electron-Beam Interactions with Solids, edited by B. R. Appleton and G. K. Celler (North Holland, New York, 1982).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8See, for instance: Berning, P. H. in Physics of Thin Films, edited by Hass, Georg (Academic, New York, 1963), Vol. 1.Google Scholar
9Turner, W. D., Elrod, D. C., and Siman-Tov, L. I., HEATINGSVIH IBM 360 Heat conduction Program Report No. ORNL/CSD/TM-15 (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, 1977).Google Scholar
10Wood, R. F. and Giles, G. E., Phys. Rev. B 23, 2923 (1980); R. F. Wood, J. R. Kirkpatrick, and G. E. Giles, Phys. Rev. B 23, 5555 (1981); R. F. Wood, Phys. Rev. B 25, 2786 (1982). References to earlier work in this series are contained in these papers.Google Scholar
11Levy, S., General Electric Report No. 68-C-282, New York, 1968.Google Scholar
12Carnahan, N. F. and Starling, K. E., J. Chem. Phys. 51, 635 (1969). Discussions of this equation of state can be found, for example, in T. E. Faber, Introduction to the Theory of Liquid Metals (Cambridge U. P., New York, 1972); C. A. Croxton, Introduction to Liquid State Physics (Wiley, New York, 1975); and M. Shimoji, Liquid Metals (Academic, New York, 1977).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13Ashcroft, N. W. and Lekner, J. [Phys. Rev. 145, 83 (1966)] estimate the resistivities of 23 liquid metals in terms of a theoretical structure factor corresponding to n = 0.45 and obtain generally good agreement with experiment.Google Scholar
14Doremus, R. H., Glass Science (Wiley, New York, 1973), Chap. 15. See also E. B. Shand, Glass Engineering Handbook, Reissue (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1982), Chap. 2. The value 2.86X106 psi, for the cohesive strength of silica glass, is calculated for T- 1000 C in accordance with Eq. (6) and Fig. 2.11 in the first and second citation, respectively.Google Scholar
15Obtained from Thermophysical Properties of Matter, edited by Touloukian, Y. S. (Plenum, New York, 1970), Vol. 1 (silicon), and Vol. 2 (silica).Google Scholar
16Glazov, V. M., Chizhevskaya, S. N., and Glagoleva, N. N., Liquid Semiconductors (Plenum, New York, 1969), Chap. 3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17Fistul, V. I., Heavily Doped Semiconductors (Plenum, New York, 1969), Chap. 3.Google Scholar
18Obtained from Thermophysical Properties of Matter, edited by Touloukian, Y. S. and Ho, C. Y. (Plenum, New York, 1970), Vol. 4 (silicon) and Vol. 5 (silica).Google Scholar
19The temperature dependence of the density ofsilicon was taken from Ref. 16, Chap. 3.Google Scholar
20Jeuch, P., Joly, J. P., and Hode, J. M. in Laser and Electron-Beam Interactions with Solids, edited by Appleton, B. R. and Celler, G. K. (North Holland, New York, 1982). Figure 3 of this reference suggests a melting temperature around 1550 C for the present case of about 5 wt. % P-glass.Google Scholar
21Yariv, A, Quantum Electronics (Wiley, New York, 1975) 2nd ed., Chap. 6. Figure 6.9 suggests that passing a circular Gaussian pulse through P-glass considered as a half-cylinder may result in the production of an elliptic pulse.Google Scholar
22Recently, Jellison, G. E. and Modine, F. A. [Appl. Phys. Lett. 41, 180 (1982); Phys. Rev. B 27, 7466 (1983)] have determined an empirical relation between a and T for crystalline silicon from room temperature to - 1000 K for photon energies between 1.65 and 4.77 eV. Previously, M. von Allmen, W. Luthy, M. T. Siregar, K. Affolter, and M. A. Nicolet [Laser Solid Interactions and Laser Processing–1978, edited by S. D. Ferris, H. J. Leamy, and J. M. Poate (American Institute of Physics, New York, 1978)] have measured a(T) for crystalline and amorphous silicon at λ = 1.06μm in the temperature range 20 to -335 C.Google Scholar
23Balkanski, M., Aziza, A., and Amzallag, E., Phys. Stat. Sol. 31, 323 (1969). A useful modification of this formulation of a for heavily doped crystalline silicon might be its extension to polysilicon by including a contribution due to the grain boundaries.Google Scholar