The three omega thermal conductivity measurement method is analyzed for the case of one or more thin films on a substrate of finite thickness. The analysis is used to obtain the thermal conductivities of SiO2 films on Si substrates and of a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond plate. For the case of the SiO2 films on a Si, we find an apparent thickness dependence of the thermal conductivity of the SiO2 films. However, the data can also be explained by a thickness-independent thermal conductivity and an interfacial thermal resistance. For the case of the CVD diamond plate, the fit of the theory to the experimental data is significantly improved if we assume that an interface layer separates the heater from the diamond plate.
A new method to determine the specific contact resistivity of metal-semiconductor contacts has been developed. It allows the separation of the total series resistance between two contacts into the contributing component resistances. The principle of the method is the subtraction of the semiconductor spreading resistance from the total two-contact resistance. This requires geometrically well-defined small contacts that are fabricated precisely by lithographic methods. Using this method, accurate values were obtained for the specific contact resistivity of an aluminum-1.5-percent silicon alloy to p-type silicon wafers having dopant densities from 5 x to 2 x 10'' cm-'. The specific contact resistivity values are lower than previously published values obtained using earlier methods in which parasitic and nonideal effects could not he quantified or eliminated. The lower values indicate that contact resistance has a less limiting effect on the performance of integrated circuits than presently believed.
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