Applied Materials Israel Limited

Applied Materials Isreal Ltd

Konstantin Chirko

Alon Litman

Guy Eytan

Rafael Bistritzer

Lior Yaron

Michael Chemama

Moshe Eliasof

Yehuda Zur

Albert Karabekov

Guy Shwartz

Anna Levant

Itamar Shani

Orit Hava Armon Hershkovich

Shmuel Shmulik Nakash

Ron Meiry

Disclosed herein is a system for non-destructive tomography of specimens. The system includes a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a processor(s). The SEM is configured to obtain a sinogram of a tested specimen, parameterized by a vector {right arrow over (s)}, by projecting e-beams on the tested specimen, at each of a plurality of projection directions and offsets, and. for each e-beam, measuring a respective intensity of electrons returned from the tested specimen, The processor(s) is configured to obtain a tomographic map, pertaining to the tested specimen, by determining values indicative of components of a vector {right arrow over (t)} defined by an equation W{right arrow over (t)}={right arrow over (s)}. W is a matrix with components wspecifying a contribution of a j-th voxel in a nominal specimen to an i-th element of a nominal sinogram of the nominal specimen. The matrix W accounts for e-beam expansion and attenuation with depth within the nominal specimen.

Scanning electron microscopy-based tomography of specimens

There is provided a system and a method comprising obtaining a first (respectively second) image of an area of the semiconductor specimen acquired by an electron beam examination tool at a first (respectively second) illumination angle, determining a plurality of height values informative of a height profile of the specimen in the area, the determination comprising solving an optimization problem which comprises a plurality of functions, each function being representative of a difference between data informative of a grey level intensity at a first location in the first image and data informative of a grey level intensity at a second location in the second image, wherein, for each function, the second location is determined with respect to the first location, or conversely, when solving the optimization problem, wherein a distance between the first and the second locations depends on the height profile, and the first and second illumination angles.

Geometry based three dimensional reconstruction of a semiconductor specimen by solving an optimization problem, using at least two SEM images acquired at different illumination angles

There is provided a system and method of measuring a lateral recess in a semiconductor specimen, comprising: obtaining a first image acquired by collecting SEs emitted from the surface of the specimen, and a second image acquired by collecting BSEs scattered from an interior region of the specimen between the surface and a target second layer, the specimen scanned using an electron beam with a landing energy selected to penetrate to a depth corresponding to the target second layer; generating a first GL waveform based on the first image, and a second GL waveform based on the second image; estimating a first width of the first layers based on the first GL waveform, and a second width with respect to at least the target second layer based on the second GL; and measuring a lateral recess based on the first width and the second width.

Lateral recess measurement in a semiconductor specimen

A method, a non-transitory computer readable medium and a three-dimensional evaluation system for providing three dimensional information regarding structural elements of a specimen. The method can include illuminating the structural elements with electron beams of different incidence angles, where the electron beams pass through the structural elements and the structural elements are of nanometric dimensions; detecting forward scattered electrons that are scattered from the structural elements to provide detected forward scattered electrons; and generating the three dimensional information regarding structural elements based at least on the detected forward scattered electrons.

Generating three dimensional information regarding structural elements of a specimen

A method of evaluating a region of a sample that includes an array of holes separated by solid portions. The method includes positioning the sample within in a vacuum chamber of an evaluation tool that includes a scanning electron microscope (SEM) column and a focused ion beam (FIB); injecting a deposition gas onto the sample; scanning, with a first charged particle beam, a portion of the sample that includes a plurality of holes in the array of holes to locally deposit material within the plurality of holes in the scanned portion from the deposition gas; and milling, with the FIB column, the portion of the sample that includes the plurality of holes in which the material was locally deposited.

Filling empty structures with deposition under high-energy SEM for uniform DE layering

A system, computer program product and a method for measuring a hole. The method may include charging a vicinity of the hole having a nanometric width; obtaining, multiple electron images of the hole; wherein each electron image is formed by sensing electrons of an electron energy that exceeds an electron energy threshold that is associated with the electron image; wherein electron energy thresholds associated with different electron images of the multiple electron images differ from each other; receiving or generating a mapping between height values and the electron energy thresholds; processing the multiple electron images to provide hole measurements; and generating three dimensional measurements of the hole based on the mapping and the hole measurements.

Measuring a height profile of a hole formed in non-conductive region

A method that includes performing multiple test iterations to provide multiple test results; and processing the multiple test results to provide estimates of a conductivity of each of the multiple bottoms segments. The multiple test iterations includes repeating, for each bottom segment of the multiple bottom segments, the steps of: (a) illuminating the bottom segment by a charging electron beam; wherein electrons emitted from the bottom segment due to the illuminating are prevented from exiting the hole; (b) irradiating, by a probing electron beam, an area of an upper surface of the dielectric medium; (c) collecting electrons emitted from the area of the upper surface as a result of the irradiation of the area by the probing electron beam to provide collected electrons; and (d) determining an energy of at least one of the collected electrons to provide a test result.

Imaging bottom of high aspect ratio holes

A system, method and a non-transitory compute readable medium for evaluating a high aspect ratio (HAR) hole having a nanometric scale width and formed in a substrate, including obtaining, during an illumination period, multiple measurement results by an electrostatic measurement device that comprises a probe tip that is placed in proximity to the HAR hole; wherein multiple locations within the HAR hole are illuminated with a beam of charged particles during the illumination period; and processing the multiple measurement results to determine a state of the HAR hole.

Determining a state of a high aspect ratio hole using measurement results from an electrostatic measurement device

An electrostatic chuck includes an isolating substrate that surrounds at least one electrode; multiple protrusions having upper portions arranged to contact a wafer; and at least one discharging element positioned between the at least one electrode and the upper portions of the multiple protrusions; which discharging element, once coupled to a discharging circuit, is arranged to discharge charge accumulated in the isolating substrate.

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Rehovot, Israel

Konstantin Chirko