Probing Nanoscale Local Lattice Strains in Advanced Si CMOS Devices by CBED: A Tutorial with Recent Results

Abstract

The experimental methodology to characterize the nanoscale local lattice strain in advanced Si CMOS devices by using Focused Ion Beam (FIB) system and Convergent Beam Electron Diffraction (CBED) is discussed. Through both high spatial resolution of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and high strain sensitivity of the CBED technique, compressive lattice strains in the order of 10 -3 from the nanoscale Si PMOS channel region are detected. The one-dimensional quantitative strain-mapping is performed by obtaining and simulating high quality CBED patterns with different zone axes such as <230> and <340>.