Film Characterization Service

The ability to create perfect ultra-thin films is crucial to the manufacture of structural elements such as semiconductor devices, sensors, and electronic equipment. The manufacture of semiconductor devices begins with the deposition of extremely thin films of materials on silicon wafers. As semiconductor devices such as those found in computer chips shrink, accurate measurement of these films and their formation conditions becomes increasingly important. Alfa Chemistry provides customers with semiconductor thin film characterization services.

Thin film characterization is one of the core technologies at Alfa Chemistry. As a global leader, Alfa Chemistry has supported hundreds of research institutes, universities and companies in the R&D and manufacturing process. Raising the bar on quality, performance, and problem solving is how Alfa Chemistry finds new and innovative ways to help our clients reach their goals.

Alfa Chemistry's Film Analysis Capability

Our film analysis covers a range of possible scenarios which strongly influence the choice of techniques used:

• Film thickness can range from the angstrom, through the micron range up to millimeters.
• The measurement sensitivity varies from technology to technology, ranging from atomic percentages to parts per billion.
• The size of the lateral analysis area may actually be unlimited, or it may be very limited.

The Typical Films Alfa Chemistry Analyzed

Semiconductor and Disk Drive

• Silicon, natural and thermal silicon oxide, silicon nitride and silicon oxynitride
• SiGe, GaAs, TiW, NiCr, FeCr, III-V and II-VI films
• Aluminum, copper-doped aluminum, copper and other thin films for interconnection
• Alumina, anodized aluminum, diamond, graphite and SiC
• Atomic layer deposition (ALD) metal oxide
• BSG, PSG and BPSG low-k dielectrics
• GST, SST and other phase change memory (PCM)
• And more

Photovoltaic and Solar

• Silicon films (single, polysilicon, and ribbon)
• Carbon / graphite
• Encapsulation thin films
• CdTe
• CIG, CdS, Indium (In) and CIGS
• AZO and other TCO front contact
• Mo, Cu, and other back contacts
• And more

Analyses Provided

Alfa Chemistry measures and provides film process control for important parameters such as temperature, deposition rate, film thickness, stress, curvature, bow, reflectivity, surface roughness, and many other material properties.

Our film characterization service is used to extract real-time information from today's most advanced deposition and processing applications within the compound semiconductor, silicon semiconductor and photovoltaic advanced thin film production and R&D.

Alfa Chemistry's Analytical Techniques

• Atomic Force Microscope
• Transmission Electron Microscopy
• X-ray Fluorescence
• Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy
• Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry
• Electronic Spectroscopy / X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
• And more