First Advisor

Erik Sánchez

Term of Graduation

Winter 2026

Date of Publication

3-6-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Applied Physics

Department

Physics

Language

English

Subjects

FIB, Semiconductor, TEM

Physical Description

1 online resource (vi, 119 pages)

Abstract

Channel strain engineering has been an important topic in semiconductor manufacturing due to the significant carrier mobility gains it can provide. The need for strain characterization at the individual device level, combined with the rapidly shrinking size of semiconductor devices, has led to development of various transmission electron microscopy (TEM) based strain characterization methods including nano beam electron diffraction (NBD). These methods rely on focused ion beam (FIB) sample preparation to produce election transparent TEM samples. This dissertation studies the effect of different FIB sample preparation modalities on the measured strain in p-type 14nm FinFET devices. TEM samples were produced with five sample preparation variations and then characterized with NBD. The results show small but statistically significant shifts in measured strain are achievable with changes to the sample preparation. These shifts, however, are small enough in magnitude to make NBD and excellent technique for strain characterization in advanced semiconductor devices.

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44566

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