The investigation of microsystems using Raman spectroscopy

This paper discusses the use of Raman spectroscopy to study the functioning and reliability of microsystems. It is shown that Raman spectroscopy has several potential applications for this study, such as identification of materials, study of their crystallinity, uniformity and composition, and measurement of local temperature and stress. Especially for the latter the technique has unique features: it is non-destructive, it has a good spatial resolution (better than 1µm), and it allows two-dimensional imaging of the stress distribution in some materials. Examples are given for micro-electromechanical systems and packages.