Mapping the quality of semiconductor wafers

The area of contactless characterization techniques for electronic applications is too wide a topic to be considered in full detail inside a single review article. On this line of argument, we considered only some contactless optoelectronic techniques paying particular attention to those optoelectronic techniques which can be easily employed for material diagnostics or to perform simple voltage or temperature measurements in electronic devices. In spite of their simplicity and reliability, some of these techniques are not well known by the electronic community. The considered techniques include: scanning electron, photoexcitation and force microscope, electro-optical sampling techniques, charge sensing probes, second harmonic generation, and photoacoustic and thermal wave microscopy. Applications to signal processing, detection and measurement of microcracks, temperature, lifetime, surface recombination velocity, diffusivity, and injection level are discussed. The article is, then, completed by a very rich bibliography and by three appendices describing some physical phenomena (electro-optic, plasma optic, and photoacoustic effect) instrumental for understanding most of the considered techniques. Most of the considered techniques can be mounted in almost each laboratory as they do not require particularly expensive and bulky instrumentation.

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Carrier lifetime measurements using free carrier absorption transients. II. Lifetime mapping and effects of surface recombination

Linnros

1998

Journal of Applied Physics

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A novel noncontact technique for semiconductor wafer mapping of the charge carrier lifetime is reviewed. The principle is based upon measurements of free carrier absorption transients by an infrared probe beam following electron-hole pair excitation by a pulsed laser beam. The technique is demonstrated here for Si wafer lifetime mapping, both for homogenous wafers as well as for wafers having pn junctions, and the performance and limitations are addressed. In a companion article J. Appl. Phys. 84, 275 (1998), (part I), the injection dependence is treated in more detail. We demonstrate the broad range of accessible injections, allowing on-wafer lifetime mapping both of the minority carrier lifetime and of the high injection lifetime as well as of Auger recombination effects. Furthermore, problems of surface recombination for bare Si surfaces are elucidated while pn junctions or other barriers are shown to suppress diffusion of carriers to surfaces. Also, a scheme for low temperature surface passivation is demonstrated and the resulting surface recombination velocity is derived. Finally, a few examples of characteristic lifetime maps from processed samples are discussed. We conclude that the technique is one of the few available for monitoring of the carrier lifetime during a full device process sequence.

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Mapping the quality of semiconductor wafers

Cited by 3 publications

References 5 publications

Effect of wafer stress on surface photovoltage diffusion length measurements

Effect of wafer stress on surface photovoltage diffusion length measurements

Selected contactless optoelectronic measurements for electronic applications (invited)

Carrier lifetime measurements using free carrier absorption transients. II. Lifetime mapping and effects of surface recombination

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