Imec

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Imec Vzw

Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Ku Leuven R&d

Janusz Bogdanowicz

Wilfried B Vandervorst

Trudo Clarysse

Thomas Nuytten

A method and apparatus are provided for a spectroscopic measurement for determining a lateral recess depth in the sidewall of a microstructure. The structure is formed on a larger substrate with the sidewall in an upright position relative to the substrate, and the recess extends essentially parallel to the substrate. The recess may be an etch depth obtained by etching a first layer relative to two adjacent layers, the layers oriented parallel to the substrate, the etch process progressing inward from the sidewall. An incident energy beam falling on the structure generates a spectroscopic response captured and processed respectively by a detector and a processing unit. The response comprises one or more peaks related to the material or materials of the substrate and the structure. According to the method, a parameter is derived from said one or more peaks, that is representative of the lateral recess depth.

Method and apparatus for measuring a lateral depth in a microstructure

The present disclosure is related to a method of fabricating a semiconductor device involving the production of at least two non-parallel nano-scaled structures on a substrate. These structures are heated to different temperatures by exposing them simultaneously to polarized light having a wavelength and polarization such that a difference in absorption of light occurs in the first and second nanostructure. In some cases the light is polarized in a plane that is parallel to one of the structures. The present disclosure may provide differential heating of semiconductor structures of different materials, such as Ge and Si fins.

Method for differential heating of elongate nano-scaled structures

A method is disclosed for determining the inactive doping concentration of a semiconductor region using a PMOR method. In one aspect, the method includes providing two semiconductor regions having substantially the same known as-implanted concentration but known varying junction depths. The method includes determining on one of these semiconductor regions the as-implanted concentration. The semiconductor regions are then partially activated. PMOR measures are then performed on the partially activated semiconductor regions to measure (a) the signed amplitude of the reflected probe signal as function of junction depth and (b) the DC probe reflectivity as function of junction depth. The method includes extracting from these measurements the active doping concentration and then calculating the inactive doping concentration using the determined total as-implanted concentration and active doping concentration. The method may also include extracting thermal diffusivity, refraction index, absorption coefficient, and/or SRHF lifetime from these measurements.

Method for determining the doping profile of a partially activated doped semiconductor region

A method and system for optically determining a substantially fully activated doping profile are disclosed. The substantially fully activated doping profile is characterized by a set of physical parameters. In one aspect, the method includes obtaining a sample comprising a fully activated doping profile and a reference, and obtaining photomodulated reflectance (PMOR) offset curve measurement data and DC reflectance measurement data for the sample including the fully activated doping profile and for the reference. The method also includes determining values for the set of physical parameters of the doping profile based on both the photomodulated reflectance offset curve measurements and the DC reflectance measurements.

Method for determining the active doping concentration of a doped semiconductor region

A method for determining an active dopant concentration profile of a semiconductor substrate based on optical measurements is disclosed. The active dopant concentration profile includes a concentration level and a junction depth. In one aspect, the method includes obtaining a photomodulated optical reflectance (PMOR) amplitude offset curve and a PMOR phase offset curve for the semiconductor substrate based on PMOR measurements, determining a decay length parameter based on a first derivative of the amplitude offset curve, determining a wavelength parameter based on a first derivative of the phase offset curve, and determining, from the decay length parameter and the wavelength parameter, the concentration level and the junction depth of the active dopant concentration profile.

Method for determining an active dopant concentration profile

A method of determining a value of a depth of a semiconductor junction of a substrate using a photomodulated optical reflectance measurement technique is disclosed. In one aspect, the method includes obtaining a substrate which has at least a first region including the semiconductor junction. The method further includes obtaining a reference region. the method further includes performing at least one sequence of: a) selecting a set of measurement parameters for the photomodulated optical reflectance measurement, b) measuring on the at least a first region a first optical signal representative of the substrate with the semiconductor junction using the selected set of parameters, c) measuring on the reference region a second optical signal using the selected set of parameters, and d) determining the ratio of the first optical signal to the second optical signal, and thereafter extracting from the ratio the depth of the semiconductor junction.

Method and apparatus for determining the junction depth of a semiconductor region

A method and device for determining, in a non-destructive way, at least the active carrier profile from an unknown semiconductor substrate are disclosed. In one aspect, the method comprises generating 2 m independent measurement values from the m reflected signals and correlating these 2 m measurement values with 2 m independent carrier profile values. The method further comprises generating additional 2 m measurement values to allow determining the active carrier profile and a second parameter profile by correlating the 4 m measurement values with the 4 m profile values. The method further comprises generating a total of 2 m[n.k] measurement values to allow determining [n.k] independent material parameter depth profiles, each material parameter profile having m points.

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Brussels, Belgium

Janusz Bogdanowicz