Traceable and accurate reference dimensional metrology of nano-structures by scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is introduced in the paper. Two methods, one based on the crystal lattice constant and the other based on the pitch of a feature pair, were applied to calibrate the TEM magnification. The threshold value, which was defined as the half-intensity of boundary materials, is suggested to extract the boundary position of features from the TEM image. Experimental investigations have demonstrated the high potential of the proposed methods. For instance, the standard deviation from ten repeated measurements of a line structure with a nominal 100 nm critical dimension (CD) reaches 1σ = 0.023 nm, about 0.02%. By intentionally introduced defocus and larger sample alignment errors, the investigation shows that these influences may reach 0.20 and 1.3 nm, respectively, indicating the importance of high-quality TEM measurements. Finally, a strategy for disseminating the destructive TEM results is introduced. Using this strategy, the CD of a reference material has been accurately determined. Its agreement over five independent TEM measurements is below 1.2 nm.

Accurate and traceable measurements of critical dimension (CD) and sidewall profile of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photomask structures using atomic force microscopes (AFMs) are introduced in this paper. An instrument complementarily applied with two kinds of AFM techniques, the CD-AFM and the tilting-AFM, has been developed. High measurement stability of the instrument is demonstrated, for instance, the long-term CD stability is better than 1 nm over 500 successive measurements over 55 h. To traceably calibrate the effective tip geometry, transmission electron microscopes-based method is applied, which uses either the silicon crystal lattice or the structure pitch value calibrated by metrological AFMs as an internal scale. Several grating patterns with different nominal CDs and line/space ratios of an EUV photomask have been measured using the developed methods. A data evaluation method with considered higher order tip effect due to the non-vertical sidewall is introduced. Detailed measurement results of a test EUV photomask, such as middle CD, left and right sidewall angle, feature height, line edge roughness and edge profiles are given. Finally, the AFM results are compared to that of a PTB EUV scatterometer. The comparison of the middle CD yields a linear relation within a spread of only about ±2 nm and an offset of the absolute values below 3 nm. For the sidewall angle, both methods yield consistent results within a range of about 2°.

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A new critical dimension (CD, often synonymously used for line width) reference material with improved vertical parallel sidewalls (IVPSs) has been developed and characterised. The sample has a size of 6 mm  ×  6 mm, consisting of 4 groups of 5  ×  5 feature patterns. Each feature pattern has a group of five reference line features with a nominal CD of 50 nm, 70 nm, 90 nm, 110 nm and 130 nm, respectively. Each feature pattern includes a pair of triangular alignment marks, applicable for precisely identifying the target measurement position, e.g. for comparison or calibration between different tools. The geometry of line features has been investigated thoroughly using a high-resolution transmission electron microscope and a CD atomic force microscope (CD-AFM). Their results indicate the high quality of the line features: the top corner radius of  <7 nm, vertical sidewall (slope mostly within 90°  ±  0.5°) and very small line width variation (LWR down to 0.36 nm). The application of the developed sample for calibrating the scaling factor and effective tip geometry of the CD-AFM are demonstrated. The scaling factor of the CD-AFM is calibrated to be 0.9988, coinciding well with the theoretical value 1 as the tool was calibrated to a traceable metrological atomic force microscope. The effective width of a CDR120-EBD tip is calibrated as 128.32 nm. Finally, a strategy for the non-destructive calibration of the developed sample is introduced, which enables the application of the reference material in practice.

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