Characterization of 193-nm resist layers by CD-SEM sidewall imaging

Thomas Marschner; Christian Stief

doi:10.1117/12.482808

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2 June 2003 Characterization of 193-nm resist layers by CD-SEM sidewall imaging

Thomas Marschner, Christian Stief

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Proceedings Volume 5038, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XVII; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.482808
Event: Microlithography 2003, 2003, Santa Clara, California, United States

Abstract

In this work the profile reconstruction capability of the Appplied Materials NanoSEM 3D CD-SEM is evaluated. The system allows the fully automatic reconstruction of profiles by evaluating profiles measured at two different beam tilt angles. From two different tilt angles up to 15 degrees the reconstruction of side-wall profiels is possible in a quick and non-destructive way even for negatively sloped profiles. The sensitivity of profile reconstruction especially with respect to height and undercut detection in dependence of structure height and beam tilt angle is discussed. We investigate precision and accuracy of profile reconstruction by comparing results from profile reconstruction to AFM and X-SEM results. We show that the side-wall angle can accurately be detected for 193nm resist structures even for negatively sloped profiles. This enables the system for the production use especially for monitoring of such profiles which cannot be detected by top-down CD-SEM so far.

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Thomas Marschner and Christian Stief "Characterization of 193-nm resist layers by CD-SEM sidewall imaging", Proc. SPIE 5038, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XVII, (2 June 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.482808

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