AVS 45th International Symposium
    Thin Films Division Thursday Sessions
       Session TF-ThA

Paper TF-ThA6
Accurate Thin Film Density Measured by Energy-Dispersive X-ray Reflectivity

Thursday, November 5, 1998, 3:40 pm, Room 310

Session: Ex-situ Characterization of Thin Films
Presenter: W.E. Wallace, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Authors: W.E. Wallace, National Institute of Standards and Technology
W.L. Wu, National Institute of Standards and Technology
Correspondent: Click to Email
Recent advances in our group in x-ray reflectivity have shown that this technique, applied in the proper fashion, can be a robust and rapid way to measure thin film density on flat substrates. Density is directly related to most thin film properties: dielectric constant, moisture absorption, thermal diffusivity, etc. Until now, measuring the mass density of thin films less than a 1000 nm thick has not been an easy task. Energy-dispersive X-ray reflectivity,@footnote 1@ performed on a modified x-ray powder diffractometer, has been applied to a variety of organic and inorganic thin film materials. The density can be measured to ±1% in a few minutes. Changes in density of a variety of materials have been followed as a function of processing conditions, for example, annealing time and temperature of spin-on-glasses. A description of the technique and some recent representative examples of low dielectric constant materials for ULSI will be given. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@W.E. Wallace and W.L. Wu, Applied Physics Letters 67(1995)1203