AVS 45th International Symposium
    Electronic Materials and Processing Division Wednesday Sessions
       Session EM2-WeA

Paper EM2-WeA9
Scanning Probe Microscopy Imaging of IC Cross Sections

Wednesday, November 4, 1998, 4:40 pm, Room 316

Session: Application of Scanning Probes to Electronic Materials
Presenter: K.-J. Chao, Charles Evans & Associates
Authors: K.-J. Chao, Charles Evans & Associates
R.J. Plano, Charles Evans & Associates
J.R. Kingsley, Charles Evans & Associates
X. Lu, Charles Evans & Associates
I. Ward, Charles Evans & Associates
Correspondent: Click to Email
Various Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) techniques have been applied to investigate the cross sections of modern integrated circuit (IC) devices. The IC devices were prepared by polishing using common Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) sample preparation methods. Some of the samples were further etched to delineate the various oxides. Atomic force microscope (AFM) was used to simultaneously acquire both topography and phase images of these surfaces. The topography images reveal height information about the sample while the phase images are sensitive to material differences and show edges clearly. Different metal layers and device structures are clearly resolved. To verify the results, these samples were coated with a thin layer of metal and then imaged with an SEM. AFM and SEM results show a close agreement, with the AFM topography image having additional height information and the phase image showing sharper detail than the SEM images. Also, the doping regions of IC devices were investigated by the scanning capacitance microscope (SCM) and low voltage SEM. A detail comparison will be presented.