Application of glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy to study semiconductors and semiconductor devices

This letter introduces glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy for the study of semiconductors and semiconductor devices. It has been demonstrated that, by analysing simple Si-based devices, this technique is suitable for detecting impurity trace elements down to parts per million levels. It has also been shown that this is a fast and economical technique for depth profiling of semiconductor materials and device structures. The major advantages of this method are the low cost, speed and simplicity of analysis.