Study of Test Structures for Use as Reference Material in Optical Critical Dimension Applications

Published

March 22, 2007

Author(s)

Richard A. Allen, Heather Patrick, Michael Bishop, Thomas Germer, Ronald G. Dixson, William Gutherie, Michael W. Cresswell

Abstract

Optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology has rapidly become an important technology in supporting the worldwide semiconductor industry. OCD relies on a combination of measurement and modeling to extract the average dimensions of an array of identical features, typically parallel lines. This paper reports results of OCD measurements on selected prototype reference structures. In addition, SEM CD measurements were made on several of these structures to verify line uniformity. These prototypes are fabricated using the single-crystal CD reference materials (SCCDRM) process, which was developed previously and has been successfully applied to isolated feature reference materials. The SCCDRM process provides features with known geometries?typically vertical sidewalls?defined by the silicon lattice.

Proceedings Title

IEEE ICMTS International Conference on Microelectronic Test Structures

Conference Dates

March 19-22, 2007

Conference Location

Tokyo, 1, JA

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

critical dimension (CD), linewidth, optical critical dimension (OCD), reference material, scatterometry

Citation

Allen, R. , Patrick, H. , Bishop, M. , Germer, T. , Dixson, R. , Gutherie, W. and Cresswell, M. (2007), Study of Test Structures for Use as Reference Material in Optical Critical Dimension Applications, IEEE ICMTS International Conference on Microelectronic Test Structures, Tokyo, 1, JA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=32593 (Accessed January 14, 2025)