Semiconductor Structure Integrating Active and Passive Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current semiconductor technologies face challenges in integrating passive and active devices on the same chip, leading to increased thickness, higher production costs, and limited miniaturization due to the need for separate chip packaging and the use of suboptimal materials like silicon for both device types.
Innovation Solution
A semiconductor structure and method where active and passive devices are formed on the same wafer, with passive devices made of silicon nitride and active devices made of silicon, avoiding packaging integration and utilizing a grating layer for optical propagation loss reduction, and forming insulating layers to facilitate miniaturization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If passive devices and active devices are integrated on separate chips and then packaged together, then device functionality is achieved, but the chip area increases and miniaturization is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges passive devices and active devices onto the same semiconductor substrate, eliminating the need for separate chips and packaging integration. This combining approach directly reduces chip area while maintaining full device functionality, resolving the contradiction between miniaturization and integration capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The semiconductor substrate is designed to support multiple device types (both passive and active devices) simultaneously, making it a universal platform that performs multiple functions in a single integrated structure, thereby reducing overall chip area while maintaining versatility.
2Ease of manufacture
If separate chip packaging is used for passive and active devices, then device integration is achieved, but production cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
By combining passive and active device fabrication into a single integrated process on one substrate, the patent eliminates multiple packaging steps and reduces production complexity, directly lowering manufacturing costs while maintaining device integration.
Solution Approach 2:
The substrate is divided into different regions (first region for active devices, second region for passive devices) that can be processed independently yet integrated together, allowing streamlined manufacturing with reduced complexity and lower costs compared to full packaging integration.
3Loss of energy
If silicon material is used for both passive and active devices, then manufacturing is simplified, but optical propagation loss increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different materials to different regions of the substrate: silicon for active devices in the first region and silicon nitride for passive devices in the second region. This localized material optimization reduces optical propagation loss in passive devices while maintaining manufacturing feasibility through region-specific processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a composite material approach by combining silicon and silicon nitride on the same substrate, leveraging the complementary properties of each material (silicon for active device functionality, silicon nitride for low optical loss in passive devices) to achieve overall system optimization.
4Reliability
If multiple insulating layers are added to support both device types, then device performance is improved, but structure thickness increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements insulating layers selectively in different regions: a first insulating layer in the active device region and a second insulating layer in the passive device region. This localized approach provides necessary electrical isolation and device performance while minimizing overall structure thickness compared to uniform multi-layer insulation across the entire substrate.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of forming a semiconductor structure includes: providing an initial substrate having a first region and a second region; forming a first substrate on the initial substrate; forming a first insulating layer on the first substrate; forming a second substrate on the first insulating layer; removing the second substrate in the second region to form a second insulating layer on the first insulating layer in the second region; and forming a plurality of passive devices on the second insulating layer in the second region and forming a plurality of active devices on the second substrate in the first region.