System and method for stripline electrodes for thin-film characterization

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10529674-B2
Application number	US-201715823933-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 28, 2017
Priority date	Nov 28, 2016
Publication date	Jan 7, 2020
Grant date	Jan 7, 2020

Abstract

Systems and methods provide a device for characterizing a thin film, including a conducting or insulating substrate, an active layer on the conducting or insulating substrate to be characterized, and a plurality of stripline electrodes on the active layer. The plurality of stripline electrodes include a pitch width of a same order as the thickness of the active layer and strip width smaller than the thickness of the active layer.

First claim

We claim:

1. A device for characterizing a thin film, comprising:
a conducting or insulating substrate;
an active layer on the conducting or insulating substrate, the active layer including a thickness; and
a plurality of stripline electrodes on the active layer, and a back contact of the active layer on a side opposite to the plurality of stripline electrodes, the plurality of stripline electrodes including a pitch width of a same order as the thickness of the active layer and strip width smaller than the thickness of the active layer, where one of the plurality of stripline electrodes or the back contact serves as a current source and drain and two of the plurality of striplines electrodes or the back contact serve as voltage probes.

2. The device of claim 1 , further comprising an insulator layer disposed between ends of the plurality of stripline electrodes and the active layer.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the back contact is a ground electrode.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein the active layer is disposed on an insulating layer or a conducting substrate having a ground stripline electrode or ground substrate contact disposed thereon.

5. The device of claim 1 , where the active layer comprises an anisotropically resistive thin film layer.

6. The device of claim 1 , where the plurality of stripline electrodes comprise at least three stripline electrodes.

7. The device of claim 1 , where the active layer includes a length larger than a thickness.

8. A method for characterizing a thin film, comprising:
providing a conducting or insulating substrate;
providing an active layer on the conducting or insulating substrate, the active layer including a thickness; and
providing a plurality of stripline electrodes on the active layer, and a back contact of the active layer on a side opposite to the plurality of stripline electrodes, the plurality of stripline electrodes including a pitch width of a same order as the thickness of the active layer and strip width smaller than the thickness of the active layer, where one of the plurality of stripline electrodes or the back contact serves as a current source and drain and two of the plurality of striplines electrodes or the back contact serve as voltage probes.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising determining for various stripline electrode configurations, identifying an anisotropy ratio and Hall angle of the active layer.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising providing an insulator layer disposed between ends of the plurality of stripline electrodes and the active layer.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the back contact is a ground electrode.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising extracting a conductivity tensor.

13. The method of claim 8 , where the active layer comprises an anisotropically resistive thin film layer.

14. The method of claim 8 , where the plurality of stripline electrodes comprise_at least three stripline electrodes.

15. The method of claim 8 , where the active layer includes a length larger than a thickness.

16. The method of claim 8 , wherein the back contact is a ground electrode.

17. The method of claim 8 , where the plurality of stripline electrodes comprise a first stripline electrode, a second stripline electrode and a third stripline electrode, where the method further comprises:
applying current through the first stripline electrode to the back contact; and
measuring voltages relative to ground plane of the second stripline electrode and the third stripline electrode.

18. The method of claim 17 , where the measurement is independent of any electrode resistances.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
applying current through the second stripline electrode to the back contact; and
measuring voltages relative to ground of the first stripline electrode and the third stripline electrode.

Assignees

• Univ Northwestern

Inventors

• Grayson Matthew
• Tang Yang

Classifications

• G01R27/14

  Measuring resistance by measuring current or voltage obtained from a reference source (G01R27/16, G01R27/20, G01R27/22 take precedence) · CPC title

• G01R15/20

  using galvano-magnetic devices, e.g. Hall-effect devices {, i.e. measuring a magnetic field via the interaction between a current and a magnetic field, e.g. magneto resistive or Hall effect devices} · CPC title

• G01R31/2831

  Testing of materials or semi-finished products, e.g. semiconductor wafers or substrates (G01R31/318511 takes precedence; testing during manufacture H10P74/00) · CPC title

• H10P74/207

  Electrical properties, e.g. testing or measuring of resistance, deep levels or capacitance-voltage characteristics · CPC title

• H10P74/277 Primary

  Circuits for electrically characterising or monitoring manufacturing processes, e.g. circuits in tested chips or circuits in testing wafers · CPC title