Boron atomic-scale mapping in advanced microelectronics by atom probe tomography

Estivill, Robert; Juhel, M.; Servanton, Germain; Gregoire, M.; Lorut, F.; Clément, L.; Chevalier, P.; Grenier, Adeline; Blavette, D.

doi:10.1063/1.4989676

Cited by 3 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Typically, secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is used to measure B in SiGe, but performing SIMS on a full-build device is very tricky if even possible. As a result, SIMS is usually performed on simplified three-dimensional structures (Kambham et al, 2011; Martin et al, 2016; Estivill et al, 2017; Martin et al, 2017) or on planar films that are representative of the processing used to create the source/drain SiGe and a correlation between the planar film and device is developed. And while atom probe tomography (APT) is perhaps the best-suited technique for providing B dopant distributions in state-of-the-art semiconductor devices, the resulting measurements currently fall into the category described above: known to be inaccurate, but with a generally precise offset from correlative characterization techniques, particularly SIMS, which is often considered the “gold standard” within the semiconductor industry for B measurements in Si and SiGe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…APT has matured rapidly in the field of semiconductor devices and is increasingly used to provide advanced measurements directly on the source/drain SiGe of devices, particularly fin-shaped field-effect transistors (FinFETs) (Takamizawa et al, 2012; Kambham et al, 2013; Grenier et al, 2014; Martin et al, 2016; Parikh et al, 2017; Martin et al, 2018). However, these long held concerns over the accuracy of APT measurements of B due to discrepancies with SIMS analysis (Thompson et al, 2006; Estivill et al, 2017) need to be better understood and, if possible, resolved. While a few have claimed to achieve good matching between APT and SIMS (Izumida et al, 2011; Kambham et al, 2011), these results are in the minority and a physical explanation for discrepancies (or matching) between APT and SIMS is still debated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Examining the Effect of Evaporation Field on Boron Measurements in SiGe: Insights into Improving the Relationship Between APT and SIMS Measurements of Boron

Martin

Yatzor

2019

Microsc Microanal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding and resolving discrepancies between atom probe tomography (APT) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) measurements of B dopants in Si-based materials has long been a problem for those in the semiconductor community who wish to measure B within the source/drain SiGe of a device. APT data collection of Si-based materials is typically optimized for Si, which is logical, but perhaps not ideal for field evaporation of B. Increasing the evaporation field well beyond the typically used 28Si2+:28Si+ ratio of approximately 10:1 up to a ratio of ~200:1 is demonstrated to improve B detection while retaining well-matched Si and Ge concentrations with respect to those measured by SIMS. A range of evaporation conditions are examined from a very low field with high laser energy to an extremely high field with extremely low laser energy demonstrating problems at both far ends of the spectrum and a sweet spot when the operating conditions used produce a 28Si2+:28Si+ ratio of approximately 200:1 (in terms of total counts of each ionization state), which is more than an order of magnitude higher than normally used conditions and results in nicely matched B, Si, and Ge APT measurements with those of SIMS.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the Effect of Evaporation Field on Boron Measurements in SiGe: Insights into Improving the Relationship Between APT and SIMS Measurements of Boron

Martin

Yatzor

2019

Microsc Microanal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A few have claimed to achieve good matching between APT and SIMS 17,18 while other claims to have huge gap. 9,19 The different observation on APT loading could be attributed to the multi hit event on different range of dopant concentration used in the respective study, leading to different conclusion and understandings. In comparison with nonfield evaporate preferential species like As, deviation as small as 4% was observed in As dose of 7e14 atom/cm 2 .…”

Section: Figure 1 B Dose Calculated By the Integrated Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Our current study provides physical explanation to the controversial reports of the discrepancy in concentration/dose comparing APT and SIMS technique. A few have claimed to achieve good matching between APT and SIMS while other claims to have huge gap . The different observation on APT loading could be attributed to the multi hit event on different range of dopant concentration used in the respective study, leading to different conclusion and understandings.…”

Section: B Dose Loading Between Sims and Aptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The most common dopant elements in the silicon semiconductors are B (for p‐doping) and P (for n‐doping). Although there are a few APT studies of B quantification, only Meisenkothen et al reported there is 20% to 36% B signal lost in B implanted (B dose of 1.5e15 atoms/cm 2 ) of Si standard sample. It is well understood that B determined by the APT is always smaller than the SIMS value, but the loading dependence on concentration is not established yet.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Quantification of dopant species using atom probe tomography for semiconductor application

Yeoh

Hung

Chen

et al. 2019

Surface & Interface Analysis

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Doping of semiconductors serve various purposes in metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS) technology, eg, increase carrier concentration and modify electric field distribution. With the scaling down of device and the introduction of three‐dimensional fin field‐effect transistors (FinFET), precise and reliable dopant quantification of concentration at the nano‐scale is critical. Laser‐assisted atom probe tomography (APT) provides a unique approach to characterize and quantify the dopant in three dimensions at sub‐nanometer resolution. Nevertheless, quantification accuracy of APT is strongly influenced by the experimental conditions. Although B quantification has been widely studied, the correlation of B signal loss to B concentration is not yet established. In addition, no phosphorous quantification study has been reported. In this work, we found that, due to B multi‐hit effect in APT, high B dose sample has larger B loading compared with low B dose sample. For standard calibration with minimized impact from multi‐hit effect, we recommend B dose in the range of 1e14 atoms/cm2. Despite the fact that B loading is dose dependent, APT quantification of B achieves precision within 2% to 6% relative standard deviation (RSD), which demonstrates that APT has good accuracy. On the other hand, P quantification suffers from mass interference of 31P+ and 31P22+ at 31 Da resulting in a large loading between APT and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Nevertheless, we recommend that 31 Da to be labeled as 31P+ for smaller P variation for the APT analysis.

show abstract

Quantitativeness in laser-assisted atom probe analysis of boron and carbon codoped in silicon

Kinno

Sasaki

Tomita

et al. 2017

Jpn. J. Appl. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Boron and carbon codoped in polysilicon thin films and carbon implanted in silicon substrates have been examined by laser-assisted atom probe tomography (La-APT). Clusters of dopants were observed in annealed samples. Compared with the results obtained by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), significant miscounts of both boron and carbon were found in La-APT results. On the basis of measurements using two different La-APT systems, it was suggested that the insufficiency of the multihit capability of the detection systems is an important origin of the miscounts.

show abstract

Boron atomic-scale mapping in advanced microelectronics by atom probe tomography

Cited by 3 publications

References 40 publications

Examining the Effect of Evaporation Field on Boron Measurements in SiGe: Insights into Improving the Relationship Between APT and SIMS Measurements of Boron

Examining the Effect of Evaporation Field on Boron Measurements in SiGe: Insights into Improving the Relationship Between APT and SIMS Measurements of Boron

Quantification of dopant species using atom probe tomography for semiconductor application

Quantitativeness in laser-assisted atom probe analysis of boron and carbon codoped in silicon

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About