CHARACTERIZATION AND THERMAL-PROPERTIES EVALUATION OF THIN-FILMS, WAFERS AND SUBSTRATES

Materials in use or under consideration for many applications in new a nd emerging technologies are often available only in small quantities and many times in the form of thin films, wafers and sheets. Such size and form limitations present a number of challenges to diose wishing to evaluate thermal performance characteristics. This has resulted in a need to develop totally new transient or modify current transient an d steady state techniques. Various new or modified techniques to measu re the thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity, specific heat and th ermal expansion over broad temperature ranges will be described. Illus trations of applications to and results on semiconductors, superconduc tors, diamonds, polymers, composites and layered structures will be gi ven and discussed.