Technos

Smart Cut™ technology, Smart Choice

A recognized industry standard

SMART CUT™ TECHNOLOGY

Soitec is providing engineering substrate solutions, where every layer is optimized for the requirements of the application. Thickness controlled at the atomic level, insulation, functional layer, mechanical support, transparency, etc. : every layer of the wafer is designed without any compromise for a minimized energetic consumption and a maximized performance.

The origin of the technological adventure is at CEA Leti, where researchers have discovered an original method to transfer a crystalline layer : Smart Cut™, allowing for the first time to put a crystalline layer on top of any material.

Pushing the control of this technology to its extreme, Smart Cut™ has become the reference technique to transfer thin crystallin layers, to the point where it is now a microelectronic industry standard.

The technology was particularly made viable for high-volume commercial production by Soitec, and is now protected by more than 3,000 Soitec-owned or controlled patents.

WORKS LIKE AN ATOMIC SCALPEL

Smart Cut™ technology makes use of both implantation of light ions and wafer bonding to define and transfer a thin single-crystal layer from one substrate to another. It works like an atomic scalpel and allows to generate active layers of our structures independently from the supporting mechanical substrate, and its optional functional layers that can be inserted in the stack.

This combination of implantation and wafer bonding provides multiple advantages:

  • By implanting light elements, layers can be engineered with no defects on the transferred layer.
  • The thickness of the transferred layer can be determined with a high degree of precision by adjusting the implantation energy.
  • Thickness uniformity is guaranteed by fine-tuning control of the implanted species over the entire wafer surface.
  • Wafer bonding is suitable for multiple materials and a wide range of temperatures, opening the door to innovative alternatives when thermal expansion prohibits deposition.
  • The donor substrate can be reused many times; after each layer transfer operation, the surface is refreshed and the substrate can be used again.

USED IN SEVERAL MANUFACTURING SITES FOR HIGH-VOLUME PRODUCTION

Smart Cut™ offers a slate of proven industrial advantages:

  • It is based on standard semiconductor-processing tools and can be scaled to multiple wafer diameters.
  • The range of possible thicknesses of the top silicon and buried oxide layers offers substantial flexibility.
  • The extremely high quality in terms of uniformity, bonding interfaces, and control of thickness variability is unmatched by any other process.

ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES FOR INNOVATION

In combination with other substrate materials and technologies in the Soitec portfolio, Smart Cut™ enables any thin film materials to be transferred on top of any other materials while maintaining initial crystallographic properties.

This technologies toolbox also provides the electronics industry with new opportunities for innovation and differentiation in growing and emerging fields including Silicon Photonics, Advanced CMOS nodes, sensors (image sensing, MEMS pressure sensors, etc.), flexibles electronics, wearables, 3D applications, new materials (high-mobility, carbon nanotubes, graphene) for advanced processing, wireless communication (5G, narrow band, LiFi), thin-film batteries, energy harvesting, LEDs, display panels, etc.