A new diagnostic tool for the non-destructive characterization of damage accompanying the electromagnetic breakdown of epitaxial silicon p-n junctions

Synchrotron white beam X-ray diffraction topography, in both transmission and grazing Bragg-Laue geometries, has been applied to the investigation of the damage induced during the breakdown of p-n junctions on silicon. The technique, which is highly strain sensitive, can yield information on both the lateral and depth distributions of distortion in the devices in a non-destructive way. Both transmission and grazing Bragg-Laue images reveal clear differences in the extent and distribution of crystallographic damage accompanying the forward- and reverse-bias breakdown phenomena. Variable-penetration-depth grazing Bragg-Laue imaging has revealed variations in the distribution of damage as a function of depth in both the forward- and the reverse-bias case. The results indicate that these techniques constitute unique diagnostic tools for the investigation of these and other related phenomena. Comparison of results with optical microscopy studies indicates that the X-ray techniques yield subsurface information not revealed by optical techniques.