Study of Stresses in Thin Silicon Wafers with Near-infraredphase Stepping Photoelasticity

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of stress in thin silicon plates sectioned from wafers by a near-infrared transmission technique. Phase stepping was incorporated to determine the magnitude and orientation of stress from fractional birefringence fringe images. The anisotropic relative optic-stress coefficient of (100) silicon was determined and the limitation of the stress orientation measurement is discussed.