The electron and hole mobility of Si complementary metal on oxide field effect transistors (CMOS) can be enhanced by introducing a biaxial tensile stress in the Si channel. This paper outlines several key analytical techniques needed to investigate such layers. Raman scattering is used to measure the strain in the Si channel as well as to map the spatial distribution of strain in Si at a lateral resolution better than 0.5 &mgr;m. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is used to measure the surface roughness. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is used to reveal dislocations in the structure, the nature of the dislocations and the propagation of the dislocations. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is used to monitor the Ge content profile in the structure and the thickness of each layer. In the long term, inline nondestructive techniques are desired for epi‐monitoring in manufacturing. Two techniques, spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) and x‐ray reflectivity (XRR), have shown promise at this stage. © 2003 American Institute of Physics