Noncontact transient temperature mapping of active electronic devices using the thermoreflectance method

Abstract

This work presents a demonstration of the applicability and efficacy of an experimental system capable of noninvasively and nondestructively scanning the transient surface temperature of pulsed microelectronic devices with submicron spatial and sub-microsecond temporal resolutions. The article describes the features of the experimental setup, provides details of the calibration process used to map the changes in the measured surface reflectivity to absolute temperature values, and explains the data acquisition procedure used to measure the transient temperature over a given active region. This thermoreflectance thermometry system is shown to be particularly suited for directly measuring the surface temperature field of devices undergoing the fast transients that are typical of next generation microelectronic devices. To illustrate the experimental approach, both quasisteady and transient temperature measurement results are presented for standard MOSFET devices.

A Review of Raman Thermography for Electronic and Opto-Electronic Device Measurement With Submicron Spatial and Nanosecond Temporal Resolution

“…Reflectivity changes can also be used to optically probe the device temperature, either considering only the change in reflectivity [23,24], or additionally by measuring the phase shift of the reflected light [25,26]. Calibration of the thermoreflectance coefficient can be challenging as the change in reflectivity with temperature is often small, however it is possible by performing careful measurements of specially prepared samples [27]. Liquid crystal thermography is another optical technique and relies on the known phase transition temperatures of liquid crystals [28].…”

Electro-Thermal Behavior of a Sub-Micrometer Bulk CMOS Device: Modeling of Heat Generation and Prediction of Temperatures

“…It is a common understanding, and also an experimentally confirmed fact [10][11][12], that the heat generation is particularly intense in a zone near the drain-side of the channel. The zone of intense heat generation (i.e., the so-called hot spot) is typically 10 nanometer long and 5 nanometer deep in the example now under consideration.…”

Transient Thermal Imaging Using Thermoreflectance

“…Due to the size of typical electronic and opto-electronic devices, thermal effects can occur on the millisecond to microsecond time scale and faster. Previous work has show that point measurements of the thermal transient are possible using a laser and a fast photodetector [12], and can be combined with a position scanner to obtain transient thermal images [13]. While the signal to noise (SNR) in such systems are impressive, the drawback is the time and expense to obtain the images.…”