Multiple parametric nanoscale measurements with high sensitivity based on through‐focus scanning optical microscopy

Peng, Renju; Hao, Jiaao; Pan, Hui; Niu, Jiebin; Jiang, Jie

doi:10.1111/jmi.12792

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Therefore, implementing the die-to-die comparison along vertical direction rather than level direction may result in a better SNR for defect inspection. Through-focus scanning optical microscopy (TSOM) [88,89], which allows conventional optical microscopes to collect dimensional information down to the nanometer level by combining two-dimension (2D) optical images captured at several through-focus positions, has lateral and vertical measurement sensitivity of less than a nanometer [90]. As the grey area of conventional brightfield techniques used in semiconductor manufacturing is around the 11 nm node, TSOM may extend the capability of a brightfield microscope by utilizing the enriched information through z-axis slicing [91].…”

Section: Amplitude-based Optical Inspection Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical wafer defect inspection at the 10 nm technology node and beyond

Zhu¹,

Liu²,

Xu³

et al. 2022

Int. J. Extrem. Manuf.

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The growing demand for electronic devices, smart devices, and the Internet of Things constitutes the primary driving force for marching down the path of decreased critical dimension and increased circuit intricacy of integrated circuits. However, as sub-10 nm high-volume manufacturing is becoming the mainstream, there is greater awareness that defects introduced by original equipment manufacturer components impact yield and manufacturing costs. The identification, positioning, and classification of these defects, including random particles and systematic defects, are becoming more and more challenging at the 10 nm node and beyond. Very recently, the combination of conventional optical defect inspection with emerging techniques such as nanophotonics, optical vortices, computational imaging, quantitative phase imaging, and deep learning is giving the field a new possibility. Hence, it is extremely necessary to make a thorough review for disclosing new perspectives and exciting trends, on the foundation of former great reviews in the field of defect inspection methods. In this article, we give a comprehensive review of the emerging topics in the past decade with a focus on three specific areas: (1) the defect detectability evaluation, (2) the diverse optical inspection systems, and (3) the post-processing algorithms. We hope, this work can be of importance to both new entrants in the field and people who are seeking to use it in interdisciplinary work.

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Section: Amplitude-based Optical Inspection Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optical wafer defect inspection at the 10 nm technology node and beyond

Zhu¹,

Liu²,

Xu³

et al. 2022

Int. J. Extrem. Manuf.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Another nondestructive optical metrology technique, through-focus scanning optical microscopy, is highly sensitive and suitable for nanostructure measurements. 93,94 The method has promising application prospects for highaspect-ratio microstructure measurements. 95,96 The measurement method extracts the size information of the structure by matching the optical simulation data library and defocused images captured along the scanning direction.…”

Section: Measurements For High-aspect-ratio Microstructuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another nondestructive optical metrology technique, through‐focus scanning optical microscopy, is highly sensitive and suitable for nanostructure measurements 93,94 . The method has promising application prospects for high‐aspect‐ratio microstructure measurements 95,96 .…”

Section: Measurements For High‐aspect‐ratio Microstructuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

3D microscopy in industrial measurements

You

Liu

et al. 2022

Journal of Microscopy

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Quality control is essential to ensure the performance and yield of microdevices in industrial processing and manufacturing. In particular, 3D microscopy can be considered as a separate branch of microscopic instruments and plays a pivotal role in monitoring processing quality. For industrial measurements, 3D microscopy is mainly used for both the inspection of critical dimensions to ensure the design performance and detection of defects for improving the yield of microdevices. However, with the progress of advanced manufacturing technology and the increasing demand for high‐performance microdevices, 3D microscopy has ushered in new challenges and development opportunities, such as breakthroughs in diffraction limit, 3D characterisation and calibrations of critical dimensions, high‐precision detection and physical property determination of defects, and application of artificial intelligence. In this review, we provide a comprehensive survey about the state of the art and challenges in 3D microscopy for industrial measurements, and provide development ideas for future research. By describing techniques and methods with their advantages and limitations, we provide guidance to researchers and developers about the most suitable technique available for their intended industrial measurements.

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“…Through-focus scanning optical microscopy (TSOM), first introduced by Attota et al in 2008, has been proven accurate and high-throughput to characterize fabricated nanostructures. − Unlike conventional optical microscopy, which seeks to produce focused images with the sharpest contrast, TSOM captures a series of through-focus images with the focal plane sweeping through the sample object. These defocused images describe the evolution of light in the vicinity of the object, which is associated with the k -space distribution of the scattering light and, as predicted by the Mie theory, is sensitive to the object size.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Machine Learning Enhanced Optical Microscopy for the Rapid Morphology Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles

et al. 2023

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

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The rapid characterization of nanoparticles for morphological information such as size and shape is essential for material synthesis as they are the determining factors for the optical, mechanical, and chemical properties and related applications. In this paper, we report a computational imaging platform to characterize nanoparticle size and morphology under conventional optical microscopy. We established a machine learning model based on a series of images acquired by through-focus scanning optical microscopy (TSOM) on a conventional optical microscope. This model predicts the size of silver nanocubes with an estimation error below 5% on individual particles. At the ensemble level, the estimation error is 1.6% for the averaged size and 0.4 nm for the standard deviation. The method can also identify the tip morphology of silver nanowires from the mix of sharp-tip and blunt-tip samples at an accuracy of 82%. Furthermore, we demonstrated online monitoring for the evolution of the size distribution of nanoparticles during synthesis. This method can be potentially extended to more complicated nanomaterials such as anisotropic and dielectric nanoparticles.

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Multiple parametric nanoscale measurements with high sensitivity based on through‐focus scanning optical microscopy

Cited by 5 publications

References 35 publications

Optical wafer defect inspection at the 10 nm technology node and beyond

Optical wafer defect inspection at the 10 nm technology node and beyond

3D microscopy in industrial measurements

Machine Learning Enhanced Optical Microscopy for the Rapid Morphology Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles

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