Evaluating sensitivity levels of detecting contaminants like C, F, Cl in positive and negative ion mode with an oxygen primary ion beam.
Utilizing Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) for in-line metrology is a newly emerging method of process control that requires contamination-free measurements, enabling SIMS on product wafers. SIMS measurements of negative ions are usually associated with a Cesium primary ion beam. Unfortunately, when Cesium is present in Silicon, it forms trap states in the Si band gap, which can cause serious leakage issues for Si-base transistors. Therefore, Cesium is considered a very damaging contaminant in semiconductor devices.
On the other hand, an Oxygen primary ion source, which is typically used for positive secondary ion measurements, is the primary beam of choice for in-line SIMS since it is benign and not considered a contaminant. By switching the secondary spectrometer polarity between positive and negative ion modes, an Oxygen primary ion source can be used successfully to measure both positive and negative species.
While an Oxygen primary ion source may not provide the same sensitivity to negative secondary ions as a Cesium primary ion beam, the ability to directly measure a range of species without the risk of contamination creates a wide field for in-line SIMS applications.
In this paper, the use of an oxygen primary ion source for positive and negative secondary ion detection is being investigated on an in-line SIMS tool. We evaluate sensitivity levels of detecting contaminants like C, F, Cl in positive and negative ion mode with an oxygen primary ion beam, as well as the use of proxy species or alternate isotopes for improved results.
Authors: Julia Hoffman, Sarah Okada, Lawrence Rooney, Bruno Schueler, Ganesh Vanamu
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