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Whole-Wafer Optical Mapping of Defects in Insulating Silicon Carbide Wafers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2011

Millard G. Mier
Affiliation:
Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson, AFB OH
John J. Boeckl
Affiliation:
Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Wright-Patterson, AFB OH
David A. Hill
Affiliation:
Wyle Laboratory, Dayton OH
Scott D. Bertrand
Affiliation:
OriginLab Inc., Northampton MA
Easwar Ramakrishnan
Affiliation:
OriginLab Inc., Northampton MA
Matthew D. Roth
Affiliation:
Sterling Semiconductor Inc., Sterling VA Now at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Pennsylvania State University, Kittanning PA
Cengiz Balkas
Affiliation:
Sterling Semiconductor Inc., Sterling VA Now at Yenitech Inc., Reston VA
Matthew P. Nelson
Affiliation:
ChemIcon Inc., Pittsburgh PA
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Abstract

Plotting defect locations in insulating SiC presents a challenge because the total number of locations on a wafer is so large. We scan the wafer with visible light at an appropriate resolution and sort out transmissions appropriate for the defects we are looking for. Under these conditions, we find that voids and micropipes reduce the pixel transmission to 0.3 to 0.5. Sorting for this transmission reduces the number of pixels of interest to a manageable number, especially with recent progress in growing lower defect SiC. Now a commercial plotting program can easily display defect locations within a circle representing the wafer boundary. We verify the defect locations by scanning electron microscope secondary electron images and scanning optical microscope visible-light images at several resolutions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

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References

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