Physical Chemistry

1. One of the most basic processes in Si  O2( g )  SiO2( s )

semiconductor industry is the formation of
silicon dioxide (SiO2) either by wet or dry G o -907,100 + 175T Joules
oxidation. Wet oxidation, which produces
 SiO 2
2.27 g/cm3
thicker oxide layer, uses water vapour to
react with the silicon wafer. On the other MW ( SiO2) 60.0843 g/mole
hand, dry oxidation uses oxygen gas and
SiO2 thickness 2.00 μm
hence produces a better quality of SiO2
layer. The produced oxide is used as a Substrate area 1.00 cm2
passivation layer and protects the Oxidation
920°C
substrate from impurities. temperature

JK Corporation, the premier company in semiconductor industry, decided to fabricate a

transistor using dry oxidation. The specifications are shown above. Determine the minimum
partial pressure of oxygen to comply with the product standard. Assume that there is a distinct
boundary between the silicon and SiO2 layers and that there are no dopants in the system.

2. However, with the rapid advancement of technology and the ever increasing demand for
semiconductor devices, JK Corporation faces an environmental problem on the disposal of the
substandard products. The process engineer suggested using the silicon wafers in the alloying of
liquid iron. The equilibrium reaction is given by:
Sidissolvedin Fe   2Odissolvedin Fe  SiO2  s 
Compute for the residual oxygen content of liquid iron containing 0.10 wt% Si in equilibrium
with solid silica at 1600ºC.

Using the Newton-Raphson’s Method, perform up to five iterations with an initial guess value
for the residual oxygen content as 0.015.

Given data:
Sil   O2 g   SiO2  s  GT  226,500  47.5T cal
Sil   Sidissolvedin Fe  GT  28,500  6.1T cal
O2  g   2Odissolvedin Fe GT  55,800  1.46T cal
Interaction parameters at 1600ºC for Fe-Si-O system:
eSiSi  0.32 eOO  0.20 eSiO  0.24 eOSi  0.14