Molecular beam epitaxial growth of III-V semiconductor ... - KOBRA

Chapter 2
Theoretical Background of
Semiconductor Nanostructures
2.1 The Importance of Silicon
Silicon (Si) is the main and key material in modern microelectronics technology
and the major player element aecting today's electronics market. About 95
percent of microelectronics markets being dominated with silicon based semiconductor
devices sold worldwide. Several advantages of silicon-like high thermal
conductivity, high stiness and availability of a stable oxide, (silicon comprises
about 26 percent of the earth's crust, which makes it second in abundance after
oxygen), easy to process (a very well-established industrial infrastructure in
silicon processing exists around the world) and a developed technology for preparation
of cheap large-area dislocation-free substrates make this material advantageous
for numerous applications in microelectronics technology. On the other
hand, silicon possesses two of the most outstanding natural dielectrics, silicon
dioxide (SiO 2 ) and silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ), which are essential for device formation
and transistor design. In particular, SiO 2 , which is the basis for CMOS
devices, can be grown thermally on a silicon wafer, it is chemically very stable,
and it can achieve a very high breakdown voltage. The interface defects of the
thermally grown SiO 2 by reaction of oxygen with a silicon wafer are several orders
of magnitude lower than those of any deposited lm [13].
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