Crack Detection in Single-Crystalline Silicon Wafer Using Laser Generated Lamb Wave

Abstract

In the semiconductor industry, with increasing requirements for high performance, high capacity, high reliability, and compact components, the crack has been one of the most critical issues in accordance with the growing requirement of the wafer-thinning in recent years. Previous researchers presented the crack detection on the silicon wafers with the air-coupled ultrasonic method successfully. However, the high impedance mismatching will be the problem in the industrial field. In this paper, in order to detect the crack, we propose a laser generated Lamb wave method which is not only noncontact, but also reliable for the measurement. The laser-ultrasonic generator and the laser-interferometer are used as a transmitter and a receiver, respectively. We firstly verified the identification of S0 and A0 lamb wave modes and then conducted the crack detection under the thermoelastic regime. The experimental results showed that S0 and A0 modes of lamb wave were clearly generated and detected, and in the case of the crack detection, the estimated crack size by 6 dB drop method was almost equal to the actual crack size. So, the proposed method is expected to make it possible to detect the crack in the silicon wafer in the industrial fields.