Measurement of residual stress in a multi-layer semiconductor heterostructure by micro-Raman spectroscopy

Si-based multilayer structures are widely used in current microelectronics. During their preparation, some inhomogeneous residual stress is induced, resulting in competition between interface mismatching and surface energy and even leading to structure failure. This work presents a methodological study on the measurement of residual stress in a multi-layer semiconductor heterostructure. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), micro-Raman spectroscopy (MRS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were applied to measure the geometric parameters of the multilayer structure. The relationship between the Raman spectrum and the stress/strain on the [100] and [110] crystal orientations was determined to enable surface and cross-section residual stress analyses, respectively. Based on the Raman mapping results, the distribution of residual stress along the depth of the multi-layer heterostructure was successfully obtained.