Researchers measure nanoscale stress or strain in semiconductors

8 December 2008

Mechanical stress or strain is one of the complex parameter in semiconductors and the researchers at national Institute of Standards and Technology are able to measure the low levels of stress and strain as small as 10 nanometer distance between the two layers. This measurement will lead to many new developments in the area of new generation integrated circuits.

Although stress and strain is not always harmful, however the stress in light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and lasers can change the output colors as well as the stress can lower the life of the device. Similarly stress in microelectromechanical system can cause buckling and fracture and can also reduce the lifespan of the device.

Researchers deliberately increase the good stress as it plays an important role in the efficiency of the output of transistors by increasing the speed of the transistor without affecting its other properties, however device engineers feel that both good and bad stresses needs to be measured. With the advancement of microelectronics applications, the devices are becoming smaller and measuring stress is one of the most difficult tasks.  Further as there are two different methods, the results obtained from these two different methods differ significantly.

The present methods EBSD (electron back scattered diffraction) and CRM (confocal Raman Spectroscopy) are able to measure near surface stress and depth profile of the stress respectively. Researchers at NIST found that the technique is useful in measuring nanoscale stress in silicon and the result will therefore provide the input for device developers to optimize the processes and materials so that they get the desired results.

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