As the semiconductor industry develops processes and integration schemes for the 10nm technology node and beyond, conventional scaling of existing materials is no longer sufficient to enable further device scaling. New materials in the form of ultra-thin films need to be introduced and evaluated at an ever-increasing pace and conventional inline wafer metrology systems do not offer the needed flexibility and capabilities to probe the physical/chemical/structural properties of such extremely scaled layers of increasing complexity.

In this regard, we have investigated the properties of ultra-thin high-k dielectrics and interconnect (both Cu and Ru) diffusion barriers using advanced synchrotron X-ray structural analysis. Some key examples will be illustrated including analysis of higher-k phase stabilization and texturing in thin dielectrics on Si and high mobility substrates, ferroelectric phase stabilization for negative differential capacitance dielectrics, and the evaluation of diffusion barrier performance by using an in-situ ramp anneal method for both Cu and Ru which is a potential Cu interconnect replacement metal.