Large area scanning thermal microscopy and infrared imaging system

In today's highly integrated microelectronic systems there is a need for high-resolution spatial temperature measurement on chips. The resolution requirements are higher than the infrared imaging systems are capable of, and the investigated areas of the chips are often too large for most common scanning thermal microscopes. In this article we present two quantitative methods to acquire a thermal map with high resolution over a large area. We use two approaches: a noncontact method based on infrared radiation and scanning thermal microscopy (SThM). In both methods the expected thermal properties of the sample were thoroughly calculated and the prediction was in agreement with the experimental results. For the study of infrared radiation the composition of the sample together with the spectral sensitivity of the sensor were taken into account. In the SThM part, there were discrepancies based on unequal conditions during calibration and subsequent measurement. Using a finite element method simulation of the thermal field, the problem has been solved and successfully experimentally verified. For both methods a special sample with an embedded thermometer capable of being heated internally or externally was used.