J. Wittge

Crack propagation and fracture in silicon wafers under thermal stress

The microcrack propagation and cleavage behaviour in silicon wafers during thermal annealing has been studied by in situ X-ray diffraction imaging (topography).

Prediction of the propagation probability of individual cracks in brittle single crystal materials

We show that x-ray diffraction imaging (topography) and finite-element modelling can determine accurately the probability of propagation of individual cracks in brittle single crystal materials. The x-ray image of the crack provides a critical parameter for crack propagation which informs a predictive model, enabling us to identify critical defects that lead to catastrophic shattering of silicon wafers during high temperature thermal processing. Wafers fracture on cooling and finite element modelling shows that, during cooling, the tangential stress at the wafer edge is tensile and results in crack propagation. The predicted fracture geometry agrees extremely well with that observed experimentally.

Three-dimensional X-ray diffraction imaging of process-induced dislocation loops in silicon

In the semiconductor industry, wafer handling introduces micro-cracks at the wafer edge and the causal relationship of these cracks to wafer breakage is a difficult task. By way of understanding the wafer breakage process, a series of nano-indents were introduced both into 20 × 20 mm (100) wafer pieces and into whole wafers as a means of introducing controlled strain. Visualization of the three-dimensional structure of crystal defects has been demonstrated. The silicon samples were then treated by various thermal anneal processes to initiate the formation of dislocation loops around the indents. This article reports the three-dimensional X-ray diffraction imaging and visualization of the structure of these dislocations. A series of X-ray section topographs of both the indents and the dislocation loops were taken at the ANKA Synchrotron, Karlsruhe, Germany. The topographs were recorded on a CCD system combined with a high-resolution scintillator crystal and were measured by repeated cycles of exposure and sample translation along a direction perpendicular to the beam. The resulting images were then rendered into three dimensions utilizing open-source three-dimensional medical tomography algorithms that show the dislocation loops formed. Furthermore this technique allows for the production of a video (avi) file showing the rotation of the rendered topographs around any defined axis. The software also has the capability of splitting the image along a segmentation line and viewing the internal structure of the strain fields.

X-ray asterism and the structure of cracks from indentations in silicon

The asterism observed in white radiation X-ray diffraction images (topographs) of extended cracks in silicon is investigated and found to be associated with material that is close to breakout and surrounded by extensive cracking. It is a measure of the mechanical damage occurring when the fracture planes do not follow the low-index cleavage planes associated with the crystal structure. It is not related to a propensity for some cracked wafers to shatter during subsequent high-temperature processing. There is no correlation between crack morphology and alignment of an indenter with respect to the orientation of a silicon wafer, the cracks being generated from the apices of the indenter and having threefold symmetry for Berkovich indents and fourfold symmetry for Vickers indents. X-ray diffraction imaging (XRDI) of indents does not reveal this underlying symmetry and the images exhibit a very substantial degree of variation in their extent. This arises because the XRDI contrast is sensitive to the long-range strain field around the indent and breakout reduces the extent of this long-range strain field. Breakout is also detected in the loss of symmetry in the short-range strain field imaged by scanning micro-Raman spectroscopy. Weak fourfold symmetric features at the extremes of the images, and lying along 〈110〉 directions, are discussed in the context of slip generated below the room-temperature indents. Scanning electron microscopy imaging of the region around an indent during focused ion beam milling has permitted the three-dimensional reconstruction of the crack morphology. The surface-breaking Palmqvist cracks are found to be directly connected to the median subsurface cracks, and the presence of extensive lateral cracks is a prerequisite for material breakout at indenter loads above 200 mN. The overall crack shape agrees with that predicted from simulation.

Local strain and defects in silicon wafers due to nanoindentation revealed by full-field X-ray microdiffraction imaging

Quantitative characterization of local strain in silicon wafers is critical in view of issues such as wafer handling during manufacturing and strain engineering. In this work, full-field X-ray microdiffraction imaging using synchrotron radiation is employed to investigate the long-range distribution of strain fields in silicon wafers induced by indents under different conditions in order to simulate wafer fabrication damage. The technique provides a detailed quantitative mapping of strain and defect characterization at the micrometer spatial resolution and holds some advantages over conventional methods.