Electrical Properties of Simox Material and Devices

The interest in Silicon On Insulator (SOI) structures as advanced substrates for integrated circuits has been generated by the inability of standard bulk Si processing to overcome some major VLSI limitations (parasitic capacitances affecting speed and power, intolerance to radiation effects, poor lateral isolation, etc.). Several technological approaches are under very active and competitive research: silicon hetero-epitaxy on various insulators (sapphire, zirconia), silicon deposition and subsequent recrystallization (laser, lamp, electron beam, etc.), oxidation of porous silicon, wafer bonding and, finally, deep implantation of insulator-forming ions into silicon (SIMOX). In spite of its relatively recent development SIMOX is now in a privileged position. The silicon overlayer is indeed a wafer scale monocrystal of high quality and offers the best perspective for microelectronics.