The advent of ultra-large and giga-scale-integration (ULSJJGSI) has placed considerable emphasis on the development of new gate oxides and interlevel dielectrics capable of meeting strict performance and reliability requirements. The costs and demands associated with ULSI fabrication have in turn fueled the need for costeffective, rapid and accurate in-line characterization techniques for evaluating dielectric quality. The use of noncontact surface photovoltage characterization techniques provides cost-effective rapid feedback on dielectric quality, reducing costs through the reutilization of control wafers and the elimination of processing time. This technology has been applied to characterize most of the relevant C-V parameters, including flatband voltage (Vffi), density of interface traps (D1j, mobile charge density (Q1,,), oxide thickness (T0), oxide resistivity (p0) and total charge (Q0) for gate and interlevel (ILO) oxides. A novel method of measuring tunneling voltage by this technique on various gate oxides (GOX) is discussed. For ILO, PECVD and high density plasma (HDP) dielectrics, surface voltage (Vs) maps are also presented. Measurements of near-surface silicon quality are described, including minority carrier generation lifetime, and examples of their application in diagnosing manufacturing problems.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.