A measurement technique based on a microwave near-field scanning probe is developed for non-contact measurement of dielectric constant of low-k films. The technique is non-destructive, non-invasive and can be used on both porous and non-porous dielectrics. The technique is based on measurement of resonant frequency shift of the near-field microwave resonator for a plurality of calibration samples vs. distance between the probe tip and the sample to construct a calibration curve. Probe resonance frequency shift measured for the sample under study vs. tip-sample separation is fitted into the calibration curve to extract the dielectric constant of the sample under study. The calibration permits obtaining a linear calibration curve in order to simplify the extraction of the dielectric constant of the sample under study.

 
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