Patent · US Expired

Apparatus and method for evaluating a wafer of semiconductor material

US6049220A · kind A · utility

75Cited by
15References
63Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 10, 1998
Grant dateApr 11, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 10, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH01L22/12
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An apparatus and method uses diffusive modulation (without generating a wave of carriers) for measuring a material property (such as any one or more of: mobility, doping, and lifetime) that is used in evaluating a semiconductor wafer. The measurements are carried out in a small area, for use on wafers having patterns for integrated circuit dice. The measurements are based on measurement of reflectance, for example as a function of carrier concentration. In one implementation, the semiconductor wafer is illuminated with two beams, one with photon energy above the bandgap energy of the semiconductor, and another with photon energy near or below the bandgap. The diameters of the two beams relative to one another are varied to extract additional information about the semiconductor material, for use in measuring, e.g. lifetime.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.