High Lateral Resolution Analysis Of Stresses In Silver Thin Films By Means Of Raman Microscopy

摘要

Many failure mechanisms in microelectronics and micro-electromechanical systems are driven by mechanical stresses originating either from thin film deposition or from thermal mismatch between the different joined materials. These stresses can induce delamination, cracking or short-circuits and therefore might negatively influence the durability of a device. As most defects are caused by local stresses also local measurements are needed for their analysis and understanding. In principal, mapping of residual stresses can be achieved by Laue microdiffraction, convergent beam electron diffraction in the transmission electron microscope and by Raman microscopy. In this paper we present a method to map residual stresses in a silver thin film with a resolution in the sub-micrometer range by Raman microscopy on a thin single crystalline silicon membrane which acts as a strain gage material.