ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to comprehensive tutorial on state-of-the-art SOI technologies. Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology was initiated almost half a century ago for the fabrication of radiation-hard circuits. During 1970s and 1980s several SOI materials and structures were conceived for dielectrically separating the thin, active device volume from the silicon substrate. The most general definition of SOI involves a structure that consists of a layer of monocrystalline Si on an insulating dielectric film that is placed on a support “handle” substrate. Bond and etchback Silicon-on-insulator consists of bonding together of two oxidized and properly cleaned silicon surfaces, followed by a combination of mechanical grinding and chemical etching of a very significant fraction of one of the wafers in the two-wafer sandwich. The chapter discusses the physical mechanisms that come into play when ion implantation into silicon generates certain types of damage that eventually lead to splitting of a thin layer away from the main substrate.
