Raman based stress analysis of the active areas of a piezoresistive MEMS force sensor — Experimental setup, data processing, and comparison to numerically obtained results

For the development of lifetime models in a physics-of-failure approach for microelectronic devices and functional elements on the submicron or even nanoscopic scale, the exact knowledge of the materials in use and their failure behavior is imperative. A piezoresistive MEMS force sensor, which can be integrated in MEMS sized tensile and fatigue test stages, was developed and is characterized using micro-Raman spectroscopy. This paper describes the experimental approach, the implementation and results of micro-Raman stress measurements in comparison to numerical simulations based on the finite element method.