Spreading resistance technique characterization

The spreading resistance technique Is characterized by four major features ... 

The spreading resistance technique does take a bit of learning, practice, and patience. However, when it s done right, there is really no match to the sensitivity and detail in the resultant profiles. That s why the spreading resistance technique has made and will continue to make a significant contribution to the activity that we re all concerned with—the never-ending task of characterizing semiconductor materials. 

Various techniques are used for these measurements. The most popular are capacitance-voltage (C-V) profiling, spreading resistance and secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). SIMS is not a strictly electrical characterization technique, but is included here because it is routinely used to measure the dopant atom distribution. The basis for these three techniques are very different and I will briefly describe them. 

This technique gives the total dopant concentration, not just the electrically active portion. We mention it here, even though it is not an electrical characterization technique in the sense that the others are, because it is routinely used to characterize the dopant concentration and depth of ion-implanted and diffused layers. When the dopant atoms are electrically active, then SIMS is found to give results very close to those obtained from spreading resistance measurements ( 9). When electrical activation is not complete, then there will be significant deviations between SIMS and SRP or C-V data. 

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