Direct measurement of localized joule heating in silicon devices by means of newly developed high resolution IR microscopy

摘要

A high resolution IR microscope, especially designed for measuring localized joule heating effect in silicon devices, has been developed by combining a ZnS objective lens and a HgCdTe infrared detector. This microscope has achieved the practical spatial resolution of 10 mu m and practical temperature resolution of 0.24 K. With this IR microscope, the joule heating effect in poly-Si (polycrystalline silicon) thin film resistors formed on SiO/sub 2/ thin layer has been measured, simulating SOI (silicon on insulator) structures. A significant temperature rise was observed in this device structure, because of the low thermal conductivity of the SiO/sub 2/ layer, suggesting the possibility of new reliability problems caused by the joule heating effect in SOI structures.