An effective method to screen SOI wafers for mass production

Thin film SOI technology has gained significant interest recently due to its potential application for ultra high density low power electronics. Although significant progress has been made in reduction of defect density of SIMOX technology in the past few years, the defects in SIMOX wafers are important yield inhibitors to VLSI and ULSI circuits. As the technology matures toward large volume production, it is important to establish an effective incoming wafer inspection process that will ensure that the quality of SOI substrate is meeting the technology demand. This paper reports an SIMOX defects investigation using an automated commercial optical defect inspection system based on low incident angle light scattering to eliminate interference from the buried oxide (BOX)