Thermal approach of defects generation on copper/organic dielectric interface due to SEM inspections

Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) sometimes induce defects on samples during imaging. We study in this article the thermal effects of SEM views on the Cu/BCB interface, in focused ion beam (FIB) cross sections. Electrons can lead to local thermal power dissipation due to their deceleration and create delamination. A TEM lamella sample preparation method was also found to avoid this kind of delamination. In this case, the thermal dissipated power could be reduced due to the fact that a big part of the incoming electrons could go through the sample without interactions. Several thermal simulations (2D/3D) were carried out to estimate the field of temperatures under electron beam and to explain the Cu/BCB interface delamination.