A Nanocrystalline Silicon Surface-Passivation Layer on an HR-Si Substrate for RFICs

Author

Chen, Chao-Jung ; Wang, Ruey-Lue ; Su, Yan-Kuin ; Hsueh, Ting-Jen

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microelectron., Nat. Cheng Kung Univ., Tainan, Taiwan

Volume

32

Issue

3

fYear

2011

fDate

3/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

369

Lastpage

371

Abstract

In this letter, a thin nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) layer grown by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition is used as a surface-passivation layer (SPL). The transmission loss αTL of coplanar waveguide lines on an oxide-coated high-resistivity silicon substrate with a 100-nm-thick nc-Si SPL is less than 1.05 dB/cm at frequencies up to 20 GHz. Furthermore, we found that the very thin nc-Si SPL is also greatly effective for reducing crosstalk noise and further enhancing the isolation characteristics of electrical circuits. Therefore, an nc-Si SPL is capable of providing good surface passivation for RF IC applications.

Keywords

chemical vapour deposition; coplanar waveguides; crosstalk; elemental semiconductors; nanostructured materials; passivation; radiofrequency integrated circuits; silicon; HR-Si substrate; RFIC application; Si; coplanar waveguide lines; crosstalk noise; electrical circuits; hot wire chemical vapor deposition; isolation characteristics; nanocrystalline silicon surface-passivation layer; oxide-coated high-resistivity silicon substrate; size 100 nm; surface passivation layer; thin nanocrystalline silicon layer; transmission loss; Attenuation; coplanar waveguide; crosstalk suppression; high-resistivity silicon; nanocrystalline silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LED.2010.2095817

Filename

5685794