Second-harmonic microscopy of strain fields around through-silicon-vias

Through-Silicon-Vias (TSVs)—10 μm-diameter conducting rods that connect vertically stacked silicon layers—provide three dimensional circuit integration, but introduce strain in the surrounding silicon when thermally cycled. Here, we noninvasively probe strain fields around Cu TSVs in Si(001) using optical second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy. Results are compared with micro-Raman spectra of the strained regions. We find that SHG probes strain fields more quickly than Raman spectroscopy, while maintaining comparable sensitivity and spatial resolution, and avoiding the need for spectral analysis. Moreover, SHG is selectively sensitive to axial shear components uiz (i = x, y) of the strain tensor that are often neglected in Raman analysis. Thus, SHG complements Raman spectroscopy.