Effects of support method and mechanical property of 300 mm silicon wafer on sori measurement

This paper describes the effects of support methods and mechanical properties of 300 mm silicon wafer on sori measurement. A new supporting method, named three-point-support method, used in the sori measurement of a large diameter silicon wafer was proposed in this study to obtain a more stable measuring process. The wafer was supported horizontally by three steel balls on the vertexes of a regular triangle at the wafer edge. The measuring repeatability and anti-disturbance ability were compared between the proposed method and the conventional one-point-support method, in which the wafer is supported with a small-area chuck at the wafer center. The effects of friction between the supports and wafer surface for the three-point-support were also estimated. Finally, the influences of different mechanical characteristics at the front and back surfaces and the crystal orientation on sori measurement were investigated. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.