Characterization of anisotropic stress around Si trenches by polarized Raman spectroscopy

Polarized Raman spectra around trenches formed on (100) silicon wafers have been measured and it has been found that the peak frequency shift varies with the polarization configuration, suggesting that anisotropic stresses occur around the trenches. The different stress components have been calculated by the use of the polarization Raman technique and it was found that the stress distribution of each component approximately agrees with that of each component simulated by a finite element method. Polarized Raman spectroscopy is a powerful technique for the estimation of an anisotropic stress of an electronic silicon device in situ.