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Project

Advanced methodology for the in-line electrical characterization of doped semiconductors in confined volumes.

In this PhD thesis, a methodology to probe the electrical properties of nano scaled fin-like device structures is developed. Such structures have become dominant in the semiconductor industry both in Front-End Of Line and Back-End Of Line processing. Due to their nanoscale dimensions, these structures are very challenging to probe and the electrical characterization of such structures is normally done using large-area measurements, where potential size-effects on electrical properties cannot be measured, or on dedicated test structures, at the cost of extra processing time and learning speed. This thesis demonstrates that the Micro Four-Point Probe technique can overcome these limitations and provides a viable metrology tool for the electrical characterization of nanoscaled fin-like structures of both semiconducting and metallic materials, even for densely packed device arrays where multiple structures are physically present under the Micro Four-Point Probe electrodes. We show that the Micro Four-Point Probe technique can directly probe the electrical resistance of these structure with a high accuracy and precision (standard deviation <3%). As these measurements can be done directly on the fin structures, this provides the possibility of performing these measurements during wafer processing, i.e. in-line.  Moreover, we explore several applications of the Micro Four-Point Probe technique and combine its unprecedented precision and speed with other techniques such as Transmission Electron Microscopy and Scanning Spreading Resistance Microscopy to provide valuable information on the electrical properties of nanometer-wide fin-like objects.

Date:1 Nov 2016 →  29 Aug 2023
Keywords:magnetoresistance, 2D materials
Disciplines:Classical physics, Elementary particle and high energy physics, Other physical sciences, Applied mathematics in specific fields, Quantum physics, Nuclear physics, Condensed matter physics and nanophysics, Instructional sciences
Project type:PhD project