Patent ID: 8716037

Claim:
A method of measuring strain on a single crystalline structure generated by stress-generating elements, said method comprising: providing a periodic array of unit structures on a substrate, wherein each of said unit structures comprises a single crystalline strained material region and at least one stress-generating material region that applies stress to said single crystalline strained material region; performing a first X-ray scan on said periodic array of unit structures to generate an X-ray scan spectrum, wherein said first X-ray scan is performed before a processing step in a sequence of processing steps; locating a first Bragg peak of a material of said single crystalline strained material region in said X-ray scan spectrum; performing said processing step; performing a second X-ray scan on said periodic array of unit structures around said first Bragg peak of said material of said single crystalline strained material region to generate a second X-ray scan spectrum; locating a second Bragg peak of said material of said single crystalline strained material region in said second X-rag scan spectrum; and determining strain in a direction in said single crystalline strained material region in said periodic array of unit structures based on a difference in angle between said first Bragg peak and said second Bragg peak in said second X-ray scan spectrum.