Investigation of a new method for dopant characterization

In microelectronics, the size of the components is continuously decreasing and is now in deep submicron range. Therefore, the dimensions of the implant profile become a major issue. Indeed, a slight fluctuation of the profile could be the origin of detrimental effects of the final properties of the component, such as the increase of the leakage current for instance. The failure analysis at implant level makes it possible to solve problems which have occurred on the production line. It can explain bad properties of the component and consequently increase the reliability of the products manufactured. SCM (Scanning Capacitance Microscopy) and SSRM (Scanning Spreading Resistance Microscopy) are more and more used for dopant visualization. These techniques have some limitations for future devices, which are mainly the spatial resolution and the accessibility of the areas under investigation by the AFM electrical tip. The proposed approach combines chemical delineation and topographic AFM in order to take advantage of the accuracy of the topographic AFM profile measurement on implant delineated regions.