Residual stress measurement of the ground wafer by Raman spectroscopy

The residual stress in ground wafers will induce wafer warpage and reduce the strength of thinned wafers. The residual stress distribution in ground wafers are investigated by Raman micro-spectroscopy in this paper. The results show that there is compressive stress in ground wafers and the stress distribution is not uniform. In addition, the residual tensile stress exists on rough ground wafer surface. The scanning electron microscopy images of ground wafers indicate that wafer surface materials are removed mainly by the brittle fracture mode during rough grinding process but by the ductile mode during fine grinding process.