Shows Promise for Next-gen Semiconductor Production

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers are seeing the light, but in an altogether different way. And how they are doing it just might be the semiconductor industry's ticket for extending its use of optical microscopes to measure computer chip features that are approaching 10 nanometers, tiny fractions of the wavelength of light.

Using a novel microscope that combines standard through-the-lens viewing with a technique called scatterfield imaging, the NIST team accurately measured patterned features on a silicon wafer that were 30 times smaller than the wavelength of light (450 nanometers) used to examine them. They report* that measurements of the etched lines--as thin as 16 nanometers wide--on the SEMATECH-fabricated wafer were accurate to one nanometer. With the technique, they spotted variations in feature dimensions amounting to differences of a few atoms.

Measurements were confirmed by those made with an atomic force microscope, which achieves sub-nanometer resolution, but is considered too slow for online quality-control measurements. Combined with earlier results, the NIST researchers write, the new proof-of-concept study* suggests that the innovative optical approach could be a "realistic solution to a very challenging problem" facing chip makers and others aiming to harness advances in nanotechnology. All need the means for "nondestructive measurement of nanometer-scale structures with sub-nanometer sensitivity while still having high throughput.

"Light-based, or optical, microscopes can't "see" features smaller than the wavelength of light, at least not in the crisp detail necessary for making accurate measurements. However, light does scatter when it strikes so-called subwavelength features and patterned arrangements of such features. "Historically, we would ignore this scattered light because it did not yield sufficient resolution," explains Richard Silver, the physicist who initiated NIST's scatterfield imaging effort. "Now we know it contains helpful information that provides signatures telling us something about where the light came from."

With scatterfield imaging, Silver and colleagues methodically illuminate a sample with polarized light from different angles. From this collection of scattered light--nothing more than a sea of wiggly lines to the untrained eye--the NIST team can extract characteristics of the bounced lightwaves that, together, reveal the geometry of features on the specimen.

Light-scattering data are gathered in slices, which together image the volume of scattered light above and into the sample. These slices are analyzed and reconstructed to create a three-dimensional representation. The process is akin to a CT scan, except that the slices are collections of interfering waves, not cross-sectional pictures.

"It's the ensemble of data that tells us what we're after," says project leader Bryan Barnes." We may not be able see the lines on the wafer, but we can tell you what you need to know about them--their size, their shape, their spacing."

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