Polycrystalline silicon, a material consisting of multiple small silicon crystals rather than a single continuous crystal lattice. In semiconductor manufacturing, heavily doped polysilicon is deposited over the gate oxide to form the conductive gate electrode of MOSFETs. It is also used to create on-chip resistors and local interconnects.
The etcher is leaving stringers behind on the polysilicon layer, which is causing shorts between adjacent gates.
In fab slang, engineers almost always shorten this to just "poly", as in "poly gate" or "poly layer".
Also heard as
- poly
- polycrystalline silicon
Related terms
Wafer
A highly polished slice of semiconductor material used as the foundation for fabricating integrated circuits.
MOSFET
A metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor is a voltage-controlled switch used to amplify or switch electronic signals.
CMOS
Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor is the dominant fabrication technology for integrated circuits.
Doped
Describes a pure semiconductor material that has been intentionally infused with impurities to alter its electrical properties.