In recent years, Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) devices have attracted considerable attention in the area of VLSI applications due to its high speed performance, latchup immunity and superior isolation characteristics. The advantage of superior isolation is also very important for Power Integrated Circuit (PIC) applications as low voltage and high voltage devices are put together on the same chip. In the case of high voltage SOI devices, they exhibit lower on-resistance than junction isolation (JI) devices when used in high-side switching applications. In addition, conductivity modulated devices such as the LIGBTs (Lateral Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) for high side switching applications can only be implemented on SOI substrate. As the thickness of the SOI film reduces, it brings mo...[ Read more ]

In recent years, Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) devices have attracted considerable attention in the area of VLSI applications due to its high speed performance, latchup immunity and superior isolation characteristics. The advantage of superior isolation is also very important for Power Integrated Circuit (PIC) applications as low voltage and high voltage devices are put together on the same chip. In the case of high voltage SOI devices, they exhibit lower on-resistance than junction isolation (JI) devices when used in high-side switching applications. In addition, conductivity modulated devices such as the LIGBTs (Lateral Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors) for high side switching applications can only be implemented on SOI substrate. As the thickness of the SOI film reduces, it brings more merits to the VLSI devices such as easier isolation, higher packing density and reduction of kink effect. With all these advantages, thin-film SOI technology becomes very promising for PIC applications.

In this thesis, a novel approach is proposed to obtain linear doping profiles for the implementation of lateral high voltage devices on thin-film SOI. The linear doping profile is obtained by using a lateral variation doping technique. In this technique, a smeared-out dopant distribution is implemented through the use of a sequence of small opening slits in the oxide mask with subsequent impurity implantation and drive-in processes. To understand the effect of the location and size of the oxide slits on the final doping profile, an one-dimensional analytical model is developed. Moreover, a computer program has also been developed to facilitate the slit parameters optimization. Validity of the model and the program has been verified by performing extensive two-dimensional process and device simulations,