PML researchers have devised an idea for determining the three-dimensional shape of features as small as 10 nanometers wide. The model-based method compares data from scanning electron microscope (SEM) images with stored entries in a library of three dimensional (3D) shapes to find a match and to determine the shape of the sample. The work provides a powerful new way to characterize nanostructures. The SEM is widely used in various fields of industry and science because it is one of the most versatile imaging and measurement instruments. The size and shape of nanometer-scale structures are important pieces of information to know especially for manufacturing integrated circuits (ICs) and nanoscale features. The SEM, with better than 1 nanometer resolution, provides information on these structures that is typically interpreted as two dimensional (2D) images. But those images contain a wealth of information related to all three dimensions, and the PML scientists set out to capture it. At the beginning of this work, there were two obstacles to achieving very high accuracy, one affecting the quality of measurements and the other the interpretation: (1) the image and measurement quality is degraded by drift of the sample and the electron beam, as even slight
The post Scientists Develop 3D SEM Metrology for 10 nm Structures has been published on Technology Org.
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