Microwave and RF methods of contactless mapping of the sheet resistance and the complex permittivity of conductive materials and semiconductors

Abstract

Split-post dielectric-resonator and eddy current methods have been compared for the sheet resistance and resistivity mapping of semiconductor wafers and thin conducting films deposited on semi-insulating substrates. It has been shown that both methods give similar measurement results for the sheet resistance values that lie within their measurement ranges. Split-post dielectric-resonator and eddy current techniques can be used for measurements on samples having similar size. Measurements that employ a split-post dielectric resonator allow measurement of about three orders of magnitude larger sheet resistance values (especially for thin films) than the eddy current method but they are more complicated than the RF method and require additional microwave equipment to measure the Q-factors and the resonance frequencies.