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Sheet Resistance Measurements
2D material characterization
4-point sheet resistance measurement is a ubiquitous technique for extracting the electrical property of conducting and semiconducting thin film materials. It is a measure of the resistance across a thin square of a material. Because it is independent of the size of the square, it serves as a good measure of comparing the electrical properties of different materials.
Whereas resistivity is a constant for a specific material, sheet resistance could be used to calculate resistivity if the thickness of the material is known. During new advanced node transistor development, the sheet resistance of the transistor channel could be tuned to provide desired drive current and threshold current. Furthermore, sheet resistance could also provide insights into the effects of environmental factors such as humidity and temperature on the electrical performance of thin film materials.
Knowledge driven materials engineering at the micro and nanoscale
During new technology development, it is desirable to gain early actionable insights into the electrical properties of thin film materials. However, due to lack of fine pitch 4-point probes on the market, researchers resort to using lithography, etching, and metal deposition processes to pattern metal electrode on thin films before performing sheet resistance measurements. These sample preparation steps are arduous, expensive, and time-consuming, resulting in longer learning cycles. The developers used in the lithography process could also negatively affect the electrical properties of the pristine 2D or thin film materials.
Alternatively, our fine pitch four point probes address these problems by enabling researchers to reduce their time-to-test from over 12 hours to under 5 minutes by completely eliminating the sample preparation steps!
100X rapid learning cycles with direct 4-point probing technology
The thin film material or wafer is placed on the chuck of the HITS-300 or the SAKYIWA NanoProber and within a few minutes, the fine pitch 4-point probes are brought into contact with the thin film or wafer. Upon contact, IV and sheet resistance measurements are performed with the assistance of a user-friendly graphical user interface.
Need a special probe card? We design and manufacture a portfolio of custom probes with a full range of probe spacing, tip materials, and radii. In addition to our current standard probes, we work closely with our clients to develop application-specific probes to meet their most challenging testing needs.
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