SIMOX : material development and characterization

Separation by Implantation of Oxygen (SIMOX) has reached the stage required for main stream VLSI CMOS applications. During the years between the firs recognized technological paper on SIMOX published in 1978 by IZUMI and recent years when successful fabrication of circuits with total dieelectric isolation is in the production stage, research and development efforts have aimed at the improvement of equipment and material characteristics, and lead successfully to the development of the commercial, production scale SIMOX substrate. This paper presents and overview of SIMOX technology, major technological challenges and milestones in material development.