Residual stress in silicon wafers and injection molded plastics

This research report provides a focused investigation and theoretical review of residual stress induced by defects such as trapped particles and gases in the silicon wafers and injection molded plastics and the application of utilizing polariscope conduct non-destructive measurement of such stress and relate them to the size of defects. The development of wafer bonded silicon and semiconductor technology is critical to many microelectronic and optoelectronic industries. The interfacial quality of wafer bonded silicon structures, which is determined by the adhesion energy and defect population, is critical to achieving high yield processes. Defects that result from wafer surface preparation such as nanotopography, surface patterning and bonding environment such as trapped particles, trapped gasses may generate residual stresses that adversely affect device performance significantly. Therefore by monitoring the residual stress and size of defects and having stress control at various stages of the fabrication process, it would give an opportunity to reject deficient wafers in due time and to optimize individual operations in processing technology. Attached in the Appendices of this report includes images taken by the microscope and polariscope, MatLab program for evaluating the result and also the data taken during the experiments.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering