Inspection of semiconductor-based planar wave-guiding structures with a near-infrared transmission digital holographic microscopy

In this paper we report on practical investigations aimed at failure detection of the integrated optical circuits (IOC) on Silicon substrate during the control measurements of the items in use. Experiments are performed with a near-infrared (1064 nm) digital holographic microscope (≈90×magnification) in transmission mode. The instrument provides non-destructive and fast (<380 ms reconstruction time for 4112×3008 pixels images) data analysis at the diffraction-limited accuracy (lateral resolution of 760 nm). High quality of the instrument performance is shown on example of topography reconstruction of a standard glass-substrate test target. Practical applicability of the approach was proven on example of diffractive input elements of the IOCs designed for sensing purposes.