Jaouad Marzouk

Integrated MEMS RF Probe for SEM Station—Pad Size and Parasitic Capacitance Reduction

This letter describes a new generation of instrumentation that aims to address both on-wafer measurement of nano-devices in the microwave regime and reduction of probing pads parasitic effects. The system consists of a scanning electron microscope equipped with XYZ nano-positioners and in-house MEMS-based miniaturized ground-signal-ground probes able to probe drastically reduced access pad (2 × 2 μm 2). The proof-of-concept of this system is demonstrated through one-port calibrated S-parameter measurements up to 4 GHz. Comparison with a conventional on-wafer set-up shows a reduction of parasitic capacitance of the probing pad by one order of magnitude. Pad capacitances as low as 200 aF are measured.

MEMS probes for on-wafer RF microwave characterization of future microelectronics: design, fabrication and characterization

This article presents microelectromechanical system (MEMS) ground-signal-ground (GSG) probes based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology for on-wafer microwave characterization of radio-frequency (RF) microelectronics. The probe is designed using optimized coplanar waveguide structures with the aim of ensuring a low-contact resistance between the probe and the pads of the device under test (DUT). The probes are batch fabricated using SOI substrates and employ a simple silicon micromachining process. The probes have a pitch of 4.5??m with miniaturized dimensions for a DUT pad area with a similar size. Electrical (dc) measurements show that the fabricated probe has a low-contact resistance (~0.02??) on gold pads. Excellent extracted RF performances of the probe are observed up to 30?GHz, showing an insertion loss better than 2.2?dB and return loss better than 20?dB over the frequency range. An ageing study shows the probes are capable of forming this dc contact for over 6000 contact cycles. The preliminary result of the repeatability of on-wafer one-port measurements with the miniaturized probe shows a consistent RF performance maintained through several contacts. The data indicates that the proposed MEMS probe is suitable for the high-frequency characterization of integrated nanoscale devices having reduced pad dimensions.

MEMS-based RF probes for on-wafer microwave characterization of micro/nanoelectronics

We demonstrate a radio frequency (RF) probe based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) design and processing technologies. The probe responds to the current needs of microelectronics requiring microwave characterization of nanoscale devices and systems having micrometer pad sizes. The use of MEMS technologies enables the probe contact pad area dimensions to be reduced by a three orders of magnitude compared to existing commercial RF probes. On-wafer RF measurements prove the feasibility of the approach to 30 GHz at very low contact resistance ≪1 Ω. A contact aging study demonstrates that the probes are capable of forming this contact for 6000 contact cycles.

Robotic on-wafer probe station for microwave characterization in a scanning electron microscope

The concept and first results of a novel instrumentation for microwave characterization at the micro-and nanoscale are presented. A nanorobotic on-wafer probing set-up is being developed and integrated into a high resolution scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The setup uses home-made miniaturized ground-signal-ground (GSG) probes with 1 μm2 tips contacts fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. RF one-port measurements considering a coplanar test load with a 1.8 μm-width gap are presented for the first time up to 4 GHz.

On-wafer probe station for microwave metrology at the nanoscale

A new generation of instrumentation is developed to address the challenge of on-wafer measurement of nanodevices in the microwave regime. The system proposed is built up with a vector network analyzer, a scanning electron microscope and home-made miniaturized ground-signal-ground (GSG) probes fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology and mounted on nano-positionners. A first generation of probing structures with contact sizes of 1μm2 have been designed, fabricated and characterized up to 40 GHz.