Scanning electron microscope measurement of width and shape of 10 nm patterned lines using a JMONSEL-modeled library

Published

July 1, 2015

Author(s)

John S. Villarrubia, Andras Vladar, Bin Ming, Regis J. Kline, Daniel F. Sunday, Jasmeet Chawla, Scott List

Abstract

The width and shape of 10 nm to 12 nm wide lithographically patterned SiO2 lines were measured in the scanning electron microscope by fitting the measured intensity vs. position to a physics-based model in which the lines’ widths and shapes are parameters. The approximately 32 nm pitch sample was patterned at Intel using a state-of-the-art pitch quartering process. Their narrow widths and asymmetrical shapes are representative of near-future generation transistor gates. These pose a challenge: the narrowness because electrons landing near one edge may scatter out of the other, so that the intensity profile at each edge becomes width-dependent, and the asymmetry because the shape requires more parameters to describe and measure. Modeling was performed by JMONSEL (Java Monte Carlo Simulation of Secondary Electrons), which produces a predicted yield vs. position for a given sample shape and composition. The simulator produces a library of predicted profiles for varying sample geometry. Shape parameter values are adjusted until interpolation of the library with those values best matches the measured image. Profiles thereby determined agreed with those determined by transmission electron microscopy and critical dimension small-angle x-ray scattering to better than 1 nm.

Citation

Ultramicroscopy

Volume

154

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultramic.2015.01.004

Keywords

critical dimension (CD), critical dimension small angle x-ray scattering (CD-SAXS), model-based metrology, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), simulation

Citation

Villarrubia, J. , Vladar, A. , Ming, B. , Kline, R. , Sunday, D. , Chawla, J. and List, S. (2015), Scanning electron microscope measurement of width and shape of 10 nm patterned lines using a JMONSEL-modeled library, Ultramicroscopy, [online], https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ultramic.2015.01.004 (Accessed October 16, 2025)