38results about "Investigating semiconductor impurities" patented technology

A non-destructive approach for the 3D localization of buried hot spots in electronic device architectures by use of Lock-in Thermography (LIT). The 3D analysis is based on the principles of thermal wave propagation through different material layers and the resulting phase shift / thermal time delay. With more complex multi level stacked die architectures it is necessary to acquire multiple LIT results at different excitation frequencies for precise hot spot depth localization. Additionally, the use of multiple time-resolved thermal waveforms, measured in a minimized field of view on top of the hot spot location, can be used to speed up the data acquisition. The shape of the resulting waveforms can be analyzed to further increase the detection accuracy and confidence level.

A method is disclosed evaluating a silicon layer crystallized by irradiation with pulses form an excimer-laser. The crystallization produces periodic features on the crystalized layer dependent on the number of and energy density in the pulses to which the layer has been exposed. An area of the layer is illuminated with light. A detector is arranged to detect light diffracted from the illuminated area and to determine from the detected diffracted light the energy density in the pulses to which the layer has been exposed.

A method is disclosed evaluating a silicon layer crystallized by irradiation with pulses form an excimer-laser. The crystallization produces periodic features on the crystallized layer dependent on the number of and energy density ED in the pulses to which the layer has been exposed. An area of the layer is illuminated with light. A microscope image of the illuminated area is made from light diffracted from the illuminated are by the periodic features. The microscope image includes corresponding periodic features. The ED is determined from a measure of the contrast of the periodic features in the microscope image.

An evaluation method of a SiC epitaxial wafer includes: a first observation step of preparing a SiC epitaxial wafer having a high-concentration epitaxial layer having an impurity concentration of 1×1018 cm−3 or more, irradiating a surface of the high-concentration epitaxial layer having an impurity concentration of 1×1018 cm−3 or more with excitation light, and observing a surface irradiated with the excitation light via a band-pass filter having a wavelength band of 430 nm or less.

The present invention discloses a dark field inspection system, which may include: an illumination source for generating an illumination beam; one or more illumination optics for directing the illumination beam along an illumination direction at an off-axis angle to a sample; a detector; one or more collection optics for producing a dark field image of the sample on the detector based on light collected from the sample in response to the illumination beam; and radial polarization a polarizer positioned at a pupil plane of the one or more collection optics, wherein the radial polarizer repels specular reflections from the sample in the pupil plane corresponding to the illumination beam The reference point has radially polarized light.

Disclosed herein are methods for characterizing crystal defects in thin Si layers on SiGe alloy layers. This method uses a defect etchant that is highly defect selective to Si. The Si is etched to the thickness of the underlying SiGe layer. The SiGe layer under the pit is then etched to keep the Si intact using a second etchant that is the same as or different from the defect etchant.

The present invention discloses a metrology system comprising: an illumination source configured to generate an illumination beam; one or more illumination optics configured to direct the illumination beam to a sample; one or more collection optics , configured to collect illumination emanating from the sample; a detector; and a hyperspectral imaging subsystem. The hyperspectral imaging subsystem includes: a dispersing element positioned at a pupil plane of the set of collection optics, the dispersing element configured to spectrally disperse the collected illumination; a lens array including a focusing element an array; and one or more imaging optics. The one or more imaging optics combine the spectrally dispersed collected illumination to form an image of the pupil plane on the lens array. The focusing elements of the lens array distribute the collected illumination over the detector in an array pattern.

The present invention provides a method, device and equipment for detecting the crystal line growth state of a silicon rod, which relate to the technical field of single crystal silicon, including: obtaining a sample image of a silicon rod during the growth process of a silicon rod; A detection area is set on the image, and the detection area overlaps with the crystal line growth line of the silicon rod; a gray value curve of the detection area is generated; according to the gray value curve of the detection area, the crystal line of the silicon rod on the crystal line growth line is determined growth status. In the present invention, by collecting the sample image of the silicon rod in the growth process in real time, and setting a detection area on the sample image, according to the gray value curve of the detection area, the growth state of the crystal wire of the silicon rod can be determined, thereby Judging whether the silicon rod is a single crystal silicon rod, this method reduces the influence of the fluctuation of the diameter of the silicon rod and the unobvious characteristics of the crystal wire on the detection process of the crystal wire, thereby improving the detection accuracy and efficiency of the crystal wire, and the operation Simple.

The invention discloses a method and a system for detecting surface defects of an article. The method for detecting the surface defects of the article comprises the following steps of: providing the article; the system for detecting the surface defects of the object comprises a laser emission module, a laser detection module and an analysis module, the laser detection module is electrically connected with the laser emission module, and the analysis module is electrically connected with the laser detection module; emitting laser to the surface of the object by using a laser emitting module; using a laser detection module to detect a plurality of irradiation positions when the laser irradiates the surface; analyzing, using an analysis module, a surface feature of the surface based on the plurality of illumination locations; and determining whether the surface has surface defects based on the surface features. The invention also provides a system for detecting the surface defects of the article, compared with a known automatic optical detection system or human eye identification, the detection resolution is not influenced by the illumination brightness or the shooting angle, the resolution is better, and finer surface defects can be distinguished.

A method of identifying a wafer defect region is disclosed. The method includes preparing a sample wafer, forming a primary oxide film on the sample wafer at a temperature of 800° C. to 1000° C., forming a secondary oxide film on the primary oxide film at a temperature of 1000° C. to 1100° C., forming a tertiary oxide film on the secondary oxide film at a temperature of 1100° C. to 1200° C., removing the primary to tertiary oxide films, etching one surface of the sample wafer from which the primary to tertiary oxide films are removed to form haze on one surface of the sample wafer, and identifying a defect region of the sample wafer based on the haze.

Embodiments of the present invention provide an improved method and system for assessing non-uniformity of features in the measurement area (within the beam spot) on a semiconductor structure, (e.g. wafer), such as a non-uniform film thickness. The scattering from non-uniform features is modeled. Post-processing the residual of theoretical and collected spectra is performed to assess a measure of non-uniformity from within an incident spot beam of a spectrum acquisition tool.