Emily Quader: Temperature Profile in IC Chips Using Laser Raman Characterization

Emily Quader, a rising senior engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz participated in Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship - Information Technology (SURF-IT), supported by National Science Foundation (NSF), at University of California, Santa Cruz. She worked at the laboratory under Dr. Ali Shakouri with the guidance of both Dr. Ali Shakouri and Javad Shabani. Her project insisted on measurement of temperature profile in IC chips using laser Raman characterization. She worked on building and characterizing a temperature-controlled stage for the Raman system. She used a silicon sample to study the behaviors under different temperature conditions and using the intensity ratio to compare the expected results from calculated.

The Ramon Spectroscopy has enabled us to measure the temperature without altering the operating state of the device. Ramon spectroscopy is a technique that measures the temperature and behaviors of a sample by irradiating the specimen with light of one wavelength to examine vibrational modes of a molecule. It is a great mapping tool that can help engineers study the ‘fingerprint’ of semiconductor materials.