X-ray Metrology for the SemiconductorIndustry Tutorial

An x-ray scattering based metrology was conceived over 20 years ago as part of a collaboration between National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) to evaluate the performance of lithographic patterning materials for the semiconductor industry. This methodology treated a periodic array of lithographic structures as a diffraction grating and focused on extracting the physical dimensions of the structures in the grating by analyzing the diffraction patterns. In the early stages of the work the focus was on developing the transmission small-angle x-ray scattering (tSAXS) as a metrology tool to measure the critical dimensions (CD) of the lithographic features vital to the integrated circuit chip fabrication. Later, the focus shifted to include grazing incident small-angle x-ray scattering and x-ray reflectivity as parts of the CD metrology tool due to their unique capabilities. Frequently the term critical dimension small-angle x-ray scattering (CDSAXS) has been used as a synonym for the metrology of using tSAXS for CD measurements without mentioning transmission. Various milestones in the CDSAXS development are reviewed in this article together with some prospects regarding the future growth of x-ray-based metrology for complex three-dimensional nanostructures important to semiconductor industries.

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“…Video tutorials from the short course are available online and have been widely viewed. 33 3 Prospects for CDSAXS…”

Section: X-ray Reflectivity As a Cdsaxs Toolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2016, NIST hosted a widely attended short course on CDSAXS covering instrumentation, measurements, and data fitting. Video tutorials from the short course are available online and have been widely viewed 33 …”

Section: Nist Milestones In Cdsaxs Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%