Semiconducters Applications

Bruker Optics provides the expertise and leading FT-IR spectrometer technology for reliable and non-destructive Silicon quality control with infrared light for photovoltaics and electronics. Benefit from more than 30 years of experience in the field of infrared based semiconductor analysis. Bruker Optics FT-IR and RAMAN spectrometers are powerful investigative tools for a whole range of materials.

Silicon quality control

• CryoSAS industrial Silicon quality control
• Carbon and oxygen content analysis at  room temperature
• Measurement of shallow impurities like boron and phosphorous by transmittance and/or photoluminescence (PL) at low temperature
• Analysis of passivation layers on semiconductors
• Epi-layer thickness determination

For the whole range of materials

• Contactless sample measurement technique
• At room, liquid N2 and liquid He temperatures
• According to SEMI, ASTM and DIN standards
• Transmittance, reflectance and photoluminescence mode
• Applicable for macro- and microsized samples

Carbon and Oxygen quantification

Silicon based devices, such as integrated circuits, play a key role in everyday life. Furthermore, against the background of limited fossil fuels, Silicon based solar cells gain more and more in importance.

The majority of industrially produced Silicon is grown by processes (e.g. the Czochralski method), resulting in significant concentrations of interstitial Oxygen and substitutional Carbon. Depending on concentration as well as on the final application, these impurities can have both harmful and beneficial effects. For instance the efficiency of solar cells decreases, if the Oxygen concentration is too high. On the other hand, in moderate concentrations Oxygen acts e.g. as a getter for metallic trace impurities, reducing the leakage current of the final device.

Determination of shallow impurities

Besides the concentration of Carbon and Oxygen also the content of so-called shallow impurities is of prime importance since they significantly affect the electrical properties (e.g. the resistivity) of the material. Shallow impurities can be subdivided into the group V elements P, As and Sb, acting as electron donors and the group III elements B, Al, Ga and In, affecting the Silicon as electron acceptors.

Semiconductor research and development

• phonon spectroscopy
• Bandgap studies
• Photoluminescence

PLII-Modul