How does silicon-on-insulator work and what are its benefits?

[Goalie_Ca]

Does anyone have any information about SOI. I've heard lots about it yet all i know of it, other than its benefits, is that instead of a metal on the oxide it uses a silicone. What is this silicone's structure, etc. Just some basic information about it would be great.

 

[chroot]

I assume you mean silicon oxide insulation?

- Warren

 

[Goalie_Ca]

I believe it stands for silicon on insulator. Perhaps that's just the marketing name for it.

Just as an aside, how would tunneling affect the insulation properties as we get smaller. What type of scale would this effect start kicking in at?

 

[nwpukang]

SOI means silicon-on-insulator,it's a sandwich structure with three layers,i.e. bottom-up:handle layer/buried oxide layer(SiO2)/device layer

For more details about SOI ，please visit http://www.yole.fr/pagesAn/products/soi.asp

If you want to know about SOI wafer clearly , please search photos with key words 'SOI mems' at google.com.

 

[Si14]

SOI mean silicon on oxide. That is three later on top of each other. (Si)-(SiO2)-(Si)
We use silicon to build transistor, micromachines, etc.
So here, why not using a bare silicon, and use a SOI? What's the difference?
The difference is you can control the fabrication process by utilizing the insulator (oxide) layer.
And it is I think 3 times more expensive than the Si wafer.
Hope that helped,.