Nondestructive Noncontact Device to Characterize Semiconductor Material

There is a need to screen semiconductor single crystal wafers (e.g., CdS, HgCdTe, GaAs) quickly and accurately in order to process them into detectors at the high rates required to meet projected production schedules at the lowest possible cost. For example, the present method of screening wafers requires making electrical contact to the wafer by physically bonding a dissimilar metal to the wafer surface. This technique is labor intensive and frequently causes mechanical and electrical problems that result in inaccurate and non-repeatable results. In contrast, the system described in this disclosure requires no physical contacts, is not labor intensive and can map the wafer with high spatial resolution thereby identifying small areas of nonuniformity that could not otherwise be found by conventional screening methods. Subject invention can characterize the wafer quickly with a much higher spatial resolution than conventional methods, thus greatly reducing time and cost now incurred from processing areas of a wafer unsuitable for detectors.

The single FIGURE is a block diagram of the present invention.

The device shown in the FIGURE consists of well regulated, collimated, light source 1, which directs light through a wavelength selector 2 and on through a chopper and reference device 3 which is used for synchronization and pulsing the light. The light from the source 1 now passes through a polarizer 4 and on to a plurality of optical fibers 10A which provides the input light sources to wafer 6. The corresponding number of fibers 10B is located on the other side of analyzer 7. These optical fibers are kept short in length so as not to substantially interfere with the polarization. A collimator may be used in place of fibers 10A.

The wafer 6 to be tested is located between the optical fibers 10A and the analyzer 7 and is subject to magnetic fields by electromagnet 5 which is broken up into two windings so as to allow room for the insertion of the wafer 6. When power is applied to the electromagnet 5 Faraday Rotation (FR) will occur in the wafer 6 and cause the polarization direction to rotate in accordance to characteristics of the wafer at its various points along the bundle of optical fibers 10A. An analyzer 7 will cause reduction in the light intensity in accordance to how much shift in polarization has been caused by the wafer 6. Also reduction due to the degree of transparency of the particular area of the wafer is realized. The analyzer is designed such that there will be little scattering of the light passing therethrough, so that the light passing through individual fibers of the bundle 10B will have an intensity change in light level only due to a small section of the wafer 6. Analyzer 7 is shifted at a polarization angle less than (or more than) 90.degree. with respect to polarizer 4 by a value greater than the maximum amount of expected FR expected to be caused by wafer 6. In this way the variation in the output of detectors 8 when the magnetic field is reversed accumulates instead of canceling.

An array of detectors 8 equal in number to the number of fibers in fiber optical bundle 10B are provided. In effect the fiber optics 10B image the wafer onto detector 8. These detectors can also contain a plurality of preamplifiers for seletively ampilifying the electrical signal output. A selector circuit 9 is providing for sequentially selecting a particular output of a particular detector (which represents a particular area of wafer 6) and feeding it through lock-in amplifier 11 to the computer 13. Lock-in amplifier 11 cooperates with chopper 3 so as to synchronize the output of detector 8 with the pulsing provided by chopper 3, so that computer 13 receives the information at the maximum output time period. The controller and processor computer 13 is connected to control the wavelength of selector 2 the angle of the polarization of polarizer 4, the direction of the magnetic field from electromagnet 5 and the selection and amplification levels of the preamps output to be received from detector 8 and selector 9. A display and/or a control output 12 is provided.

First the semiconductor wafer 6 to be tested is inserted between the split magnets 5. A holder can be provided for precise location of the wafer to be tested. The temperature of the wafer can be controlled by conventional means so as to lower the wafer's temperature to a predetermined value. The device is placed in the operational mode by applying power to light source 1 and computer 13. Initial direction and magnitude of the magnetic field H and light intensity I.sub.o passing from 1 through fiber optics bundle 10 to wafer 6, are selected respectively by the computer by controlled adjustments of the current through electromagnet 5 and angle between polarizer 4 and analyzer 7 which are rotated about a common axis. The computer is also programmed to initialize the sampling sequence by setting selector 9 to read the output from the first detector preamp 8 through lock-in amplifier 11, and to select the optimum chopping rate and probing wavelength by adjusting the wavelength selector 2 and chopper 3 respectively. After these initial conditions have been automatically established, the programmed testing of the wafer proceeds as follows:

The output level of the first detector is recorded. The direction of the magnetic field H is reversed on command from the computer 13. The computer records the level change of the first detector and also the location of the corresponding detector. Similarly, the location and change in output of each detector is sequentially recorded in the computer as the computer automatically changes the selector position of 9. Changes in the outputs of the detectors will be different if nonuniformities are present in the wafer. This is due to Farady rotation caused by free carriers in the crystal, and local defects in the lattice through which the light passes at any location. The intensity of light falling on a detector will be mathematically proportional to the Faraday rotation. At the conclusion of the sequencing operation, the computer will have acquired and stored the change in output of each of detectors 8 and the corresponding location of the parts of the wafer that caused the changes. From this information the computer will generate and display an intensity vs position map of the wafer that shows those parts of the wafer within predetermined specifications and automatically marks them using the peripheral 12. When desired, the entire process will be automatically repeated at several different wavelengths by programming the computer to adjust wavelength selector 2 before each sequencing operation. This will provide all necessary data for the computer to characterize the wafer and determine the free-carrier concentration.

In the case of a wafer which has nonuniform characterizes by design, a standard (reference) wafer will be analized and stored in the memory of computer 13 and the wafers to be tested can be compared with the reference wafer stored values. Any of the well known programmable computers of sufficient size can be programmed to perform the required functions.