Optical Transmission Properties of Silicon Wafters: Theoretical Analysis

As a nondestructive measurement method, laser scattering has been preliminarily applied to detect subsurface damage in silicon wafers, but the quantitative correlation between scatter images and subsurface damage depth has not been established yet. In order to assess subsurface damage depth in silicon wafers, a systematic study has been carried out. In the authors’ another paper, a detailed experimental investigation on optical transmission percentage of silicon wafers was presented. As a follow up, this paper will describe a method to calculate the “skin depth” of silicon wafers from the experimental data of optical transmission percentage. And also, how to apply this “skin depth” on assessment of subsurface damage depth will be discussed.