Impact of bilayer character on High K gate stack dielectrics breakdown obtained by conductive atomic force microscopy

2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (12) ◽  
pp. 1857-1862 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Foissac ◽  
S. Blonkowski ◽  
M. Kogelschatz ◽  
P. Delcroix ◽  
M. Gros-Jean ◽  
...  
2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shigeaki Zaima ◽  
Akiyoshi Seko ◽  
Yukihiko Watanabe ◽  
Toshifumi Sago ◽  
Mitsuo Sakashita ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Lucile C. Teague Sheridan ◽  
Linda Conohan ◽  
Chong Khiam Oh

Abstract Atomic force microscopy (AFM) methods have provided a wealth of knowledge into the topographic, electrical, mechanical, magnetic, and electrochemical properties of surfaces and materials at the micro- and nanoscale over the last several decades. More specifically, the application of conductive AFM (CAFM) techniques for failure analysis can provide a simultaneous view of the conductivity and topographic properties of the patterned features. As CMOS technology progresses to smaller and smaller devices, the benefits of CAFM techniques have become apparent [1-3]. Herein, we review several cases in which CAFM has been utilized as a fault-isolation technique to detect middle of line (MOL) and front end of line (FEOL) buried defects in 20nm technologies and beyond.


Author(s):  
Jon C. Lee ◽  
J. H. Chuang

Abstract As integrated circuits (IC) have become more complicated with device features shrinking into the deep sub-micron range, so the challenge of defect isolation has become more difficult. Many failure analysis (FA) techniques using optical/electron beam and scanning probe microscopy (SPM) have been developed to improve the capability of defect isolation. SPM provides topographic imaging coupled with a variety of material characterization information such as thermal, magnetic, electric, capacitance, resistance and current with nano-meter scale resolution. Conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) has been widely used for electrical characterization of dielectric film and gate oxide integrity (GOI). In this work, C-AFM has been successfully employed to isolate defects in the contact level and to discriminate various contact types. The current mapping of C-AFM has the potential to identify micro-leaky contacts better than voltage contrast (VC) imaging in SEM. It also provides I/V information that is helpful to diagnose the failure mechanism by comparing I/V curves of different contact types. C-AFM is able to localize faulty contacts with pico-amp current range and to characterize failure with nano-meter scale lateral resolution. C-AFM should become an important technique for IC fault localization. FA examples of this technique will be discussed in the article.


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