Thin Film Characterizations Applied in Semiconductor Industries

In this webinar, we will review many of the current challenges in thin film mechanical property analysis and present new and existing techniques that offer significant benefits for such challenging problems.

Abstract

Advances in thin film deposition technologies and material development has enabled a wide range of industrial applications. Examples of this are very evident in the semiconductor/microelectronics, display, energy, and many others industries. Decreasing film thicknesses and material/manufacturing complexities pose increasing challenges for industrial engineers and process control in the evaluation of mechanical properties. Control of these ultra-thin films are extremely essential and present a challenge in measuring mechanical properties with highly precise force, displacement, and positioning control.

This has created a need for process grade metrology instrumentation with significantly enhanced precision in measuring a wide range of mechanical properties. Hardness, modulus, interfacial adhesion, fracture toughness, and temperature are just some of the mechanical property measurements that become significantly more difficult in such thin films.

Speaker

Pal-Jen Wei, Ph.D., Bruker

Dr. PJ Wei is an Application Scientist at Bruker Nano Surfaces, responsible for application development and technical support of Nano-Mechanical, Nano-Tribological and Nano-Indentation instruments. His academic background was in mechanical engineering and nano-metrology. Dr. Wei obtained his Ph.D. at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan; majoring in nano-mechanical properties of thin solid films. Prior to joining Bruker, Dr. Wei was an Assistant Prof. at the Nanotechnology and Micro-system Institute in Taiwan and then a senior engineer of RD department in Catcher Tech. He has published in over 30 peer reviewed international journal papers and has also presented at many international conferences.