General accuracy considerations of microwave on-wafer silicon device measurements

This paper gives a general treatment of problems encountered when conducting microwave on-wafer measurements on devices fabricated on silicon substrates. First, issues specific to low-resistivity substrates and low-conductance metallization are detailed. This treatment includes probing reliability, contact resistance, leakage effects, and substrate coupling. Next, some widely disputed subjects of on-wafer measurements are assessed and novel techniques for verifying measuring accuracy are proposed.