Semiconductor devices often operate under sustained thermal stresses. Understanding the thermal resistances of the materials used in these devices is essential to mitigate thermal failure and maximize performance, reliability, and manufacturing yield.
Our world runs on semiconductors, and chip manufacturers are always looking for improvements that can help deliver higher yield and lower costs in the fabrication process. In this blog, we examine the semiconductor testing process, how it works, and why it’s particularly critical for this industry.
SSTR measurements on ALD grown ultrathin film amorphous gate dielectrics (compared to TDTR) (source).
SSTR measurements of AlN crystalline thin films.2 SSTR data (temperature rise vs. power) on right for AlN film and silicon wafer control.
| Literature Value | TPS Measurement | SSTR-F Measurement | |
| Pyroceram 9606 | 4.07 +/- .26 | 3.95 | 3.95 +/- 0.2 |
| HPFS 7980 | 1.38 | 1.39 | 1.39 +/- 0.09 |
20 SSTR-F measurements at same spot
20 SSTR-F measurements at random spots
SSTR-F data on 4 different 200 nm dielectric films on silicon with thermal conductivity ranging from ~0.35 W/m/K up to 1.8 W/m/K. SSTR-F allows for easy, rapid and automated identification of different temperature rises based on the thermal conductivity of the different films.