AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Applied Surface Science Monday Sessions
       Session AS+BI+NS-MoM

Invited Paper AS+BI+NS-MoM9
The Importance of Aberration Corrected SEM and TEM to the Semiconductor Industry

Monday, October 31, 2005, 11:00 am, Room 206

Session: Nanoscale Analysis: Biomaterial and Other Applications
Presenter: A.C. Diebold, SEMATECH & AMRC
Authors: A.C. Diebold, SEMATECH & AMRC
B. Foran, ATDF & AMRC
M.J. Yacaman, University of Texas & AMRC
B.A. Korgel, University of Texas & AMRC
Correspondent: Click to Email
Microscopy continues to be a critical need for the semiconductor industry. Feature sizes continue to shrink with logic having a two-year cycle for introduction of each new technology generation. Over the next fifteen years, the gate length of transistors will rapidly shrink to less than 10 nm. The interconnect technology connecting the transistors will keep pace with this size reduction. Research and development needs occur well ahead of manufacturing needs. Thus, there already is a need for microscopy capable of imaging and characterizing the interfaces, film layers and structures for future devices. Recent advances in electron optics technology have corrected for chromatic and spherical aberrations that have long limited resolution in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and tranmission electron microscopy (TEM). Commercially available advances include monochromators to reduce the energy spread of the electron source and lens correctors to reduce spherical aberration. Resolution of state of the art scanning TEM and High resolution TEM has been proven below 0.1 nm. Aberration correction technology is also now commercially available for SEM and allowing resolution to 0.6 nm. In this paper we discuss the advances in imaging that aberration corrected lenses have enabled along with semiconductor industry applications. We will discuss near-term applications such as the characterization of interfaces in the transistor gate stack and measurement of strain in the transistor channel, and then also discuss long-term research applications such as nanowires and nanodots. Abberation correction will not solve all microscopy problems, and we will discuss specific cases such as sample or analytical limitations that can obviate any benefit of aberration correction technology.