A common method of determining film stress is to measure the induced curvature in the substrate, then calculate the stress using Stoney's equation. Measuring the curvature of the substrate can be done using an optically levered laser beam. The setup can be as simple as a manual linear translation stage to move the substrate, while monitoring the deflection of a laser beam reflecting off it's surface onto a piece of graph paper taped to a nearby wall. There are several commercially available, automated instruments based on this principle. A somewhat simpler, but cumbersome method to determine substrate curvature is to measure variation in depth of focus while translating the substrate on the stage of a microscope. A discussion of the first method by Sinha, Levenstein and Smith can be found in the Journal of Applied Physics, Vol 49, No. 4, April 1978, p. 2423-2426 Roger Shile Hi all, I am looking for a right tool to measure the stress in the polymer thin film(~50nm) at wafer level. The polymer is a fluorocarbon which is like Teflon. The film is deposited with the ICP. I had gone through long range surface profiler. But is there any other spectroscopic technique that can be used for wafer level stress measurement? Thanks in advance, Arun