Electrical linewidth test structures patterned in [100] silicon-on-insulator for use as CD standards

Autor: Michael W. Cresswell, S.C. Everist, J.E. Bonevich, Christine E. Murabito, Loren W. Linholm, L.A. Giannuzzi, P.J. Shea, N.M.P. Guillaume, R.A. Allen
Rok vydání: 2001
Předmět:
Zdroj: IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing. 14:356-364
ISSN: 0894-6507
DOI: 10.1109/66.964322
Popis: Electrical test structures known as cross-bridge resistors have been patterned in [100] epitaxial silicon material that was grown on Bonded and Etched-back Silicon-On-Insulator (BESOI) substrates. The critical dimensions (CDs) of a selection of their reference segments have been measured electrically, by scanning-electron microscopy (SEM), and by lattice-plane counting. The lattice-plane counting is performed on phase-contrast images of the cross sections of the reference segments that are produced by high-resolution transmission-electron microscopy (HRTEM). The reference-segment features were aligned with [110] directions in the BESOI surface material. They were defined by a silicon micromachining process that resulted in their sidewalls being nearly atomically planar and smooth and inclined at 54.737/spl deg/ to the surface [100] plane of the substrate. SEM, HRTEM, and electrical CD (ECD) linewidth measurements have been made on features of various drawn dimensions on the same substrate to investigate the feasibility of a CD traceability path that combines the low cost, robustness, and repeatability of ECD metrology and the absolute measurement of the HRTEM lattice-plane counting technique. Other novel aspects of the [100] silicon-on-insulator (SOI) implementation that are reported here are the ECD test-structure architecture and the making of lattice-plane counts from cross-sectional HRTEM imaging of the reference features. This paper describes the design details and the fabrication of the cross-bridge resistor test structure. The long-term goal is to develop a technique for the determination of the absolute dimensions of the trapezoidal cross sections of the cross-bridge resistors' reference segments, as a prelude to making them available for dimensional reference applications.
Databáze: OpenAIRE