Gold is a very fast diffuser in Si. Although I never tried it, I was
told that gold will diffusion through the thickness of a wafer in a
short time on a hotplate. Besides diffusing very quickly, gold is also a
deep level in Si so it will drastically reduce the minority carrier
lifetime.

Winston

Ramakrishna M V S wrote:
>
> Hi.
>
> I would like to know if Gold is CMOS compatible (actually i heard that it is
> not and am looking for reasons). If it indeed is not CMOS compatible then
> why do many use gold as a reflective coating in micromachined optical
> switches?
>
> Similarly, i would like to know how serious it is to use NaOH and KOH in
> CMOS clean rooms.
>
> Please e-mail me at rk@geektown.net
>
> Regards
> Rama
>

--
Winston Chan                            | phone: (319) 353-2398
Dept. of Electrical Engineering         | fax: (319) 353-1115
University of Iowa                      | email: winston-chan@uiowa.edu
Iowa City, IA 52242