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Question

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow :

Diffusion of impurity atoms in silicon is important in silicon integrated circuit processing. The idea of using diffusion techniques to alter the type of conductivity in silicon or germanium was disclosed in a patent by Pfann. Since then various ways of introducing dopants into silicon by diffusion have been studied with the goal of controlling dopant distribution, total dopant concentration, its uniformity reproducibility, and of processing a large number of device wafers in a batch to reduce the manufacturing cost. The diffusion is used to form bases, emitters and resistors in bipolar devices technology, to form source and drain regions and to dope polysilicon in MOS device technology. Dopant atoms that span a wide range of concentrations can be introduced into silicon in many ways.

Fick's second law of diffusion in one dimensional form can be expressed as :

This question was previously asked in
UGC NET 2023 Home Science Question Paper (13-Dec-2023) (Shift 1)
The correct answer is

\(\dfrac{\partial C(x,t)}{\partial t}=\dfrac{\partial}{\partial x}\left[D\dfrac{\partial C(x,t)}{\partial x}\right]\)

Fick's second law is a time derivative on the left and a space derivative twice on the right — option 1:

\(\dfrac{\partial C}{\partial t}=\dfrac{\partial}{\partial x}\left[D\dfrac{\partial C}{\partial x}\right]\)

Where it comes from — two statements combined.

Fick's first law says that flux is driven by a concentration gradient, and flows down it:

\(J=-D\dfrac{\partial C}{\partial x}\)

Continuity says that whatever does not flow out must accumulate:

\(\dfrac{\partial C}{\partial t}=-\dfrac{\partial J}{\partial x}\)

Substituting the first into the second gives the second law directly, and the two minus signs cancel. Seeing this derivation makes the structure inevitable: the left side is a rate of accumulation in time, and the right is the divergence of a flux in space. The two sides must therefore carry different variables, which immediately rules out options 2, 3 and 4 — each of which differentiates twice with respect to the same variable somewhere.

Checking option 1 dimensionally. With C in cm–3 and D in cm2/s:

\(\left[\dfrac{\partial C}{\partial t}\right]=\dfrac{\text{cm}^{-3}}{\text{s}},\qquad \left[\dfrac{\partial^{2}C}{\partial x^{2}}\right]=\dfrac{\text{cm}^{-3}}{\text{cm}^{2}}\)

and multiplying the second by D's cm2/s reproduces the first exactly. None of the other three balances.

Why D is left inside the derivative. If diffusivity is constant the equation simplifies to \(\partial C/\partial t=D\,\partial^{2}C/\partial x^{2}\), whose solutions are the Gaussian and error-function profiles of the previous questions. But D is not always constant: at concentrations above the intrinsic carrier density it becomes concentration dependent through the charged point defects that carry the dopant, so \(D=D(C)\) and the general form must be kept. That is why heavily doped profiles are box-shaped rather than Gaussian.

The same equation governs heat conduction, with temperature in place of concentration — which is why solutions worked out for one field transfer directly to the other.

Hence, the correct expression is option 1.

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Important Questions from Semiconductor Process Flow

  1. Which one of the following processes is preferred to form the gate dielectric (SiO2) of MOSFETs?

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  3. Which of the following statements are true for optical photoresists
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    C. A negative photo-resist on exposure to light becomes less soluble in developer solution.
    D. A positive photo-resist on exposure to light becomes more soluble in developer solution.
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  4. In particle beam lithography, the resolution depends upon :
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