Precision of single-engage micro Hall effect measurements

Recently a novel microscale Hall effect measurement technique has been developed to extract sheet resistance (Rs), Hall sheet carrier density (N_Hs) and Hall mobility (μ_H) from collinear micro 4-point probe measurements in the vicinity of an insulating boundary [1]. The technique measures in less than a minute directly the local transport properties, which enables in-line production monitoring on scribe line test pads [2]. To increase measurement speed and reliability, a method in which 4-point measurements are performed using two different electrode pitches has been developed [3]. In this study we calculate the measurement error on R_S, N_HS and μ_H resulting from electrode position errors, probe placement, sample size and Hall signal magnitude. We show the relationship between measurement precision and electrode pitch, which is important when down-scaling the micro 4-point probe to fit smaller test pads. The study is based on Monte Carlo simulations.