Methodologies for measuring residual stress distributions in epitaxial thin films

Residual stresses in a thin film deposited on a dissimilar substrate can bring about various interface or subsurface damages, such as delamination, dislocation, twinning and cracking. In high performance integrated circuits and MEMS, a too high residual stress can significantly alter their electronic properties. A proper residual stress characterization needs the description of full stress tensors and their variations with thickness. The problem is that film thickness measurement requires different means, and that direct measurement techniques to fulfill the tasks are not straightforward. This paper provides a simple method using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman scattering for the measurement of residual stresses and their thickness dependence. Using the epitaxial silicon film on a sapphire substrate as an example, this paper demonstrates that the improved XRD technique can make use of multiple diffraction peaks to give rise to a highly accurate stress tensor. The co-existence of silicon and sapphire peaks in a Raman spectrum then allows a simultaneous measurement of film thickness from the peak intensity ratio and the residual stress from the peak shift. The paper also concludes the relation between film thickness and residual stresses.