Electrical and microscopy analysis of dislocations in present generation devices

Abstract

AbstractOne of the most critical issues of the STI process is the reduction of the stress generation during the oxidation steps. This stress can create defects later on in the process, leading to increased leakage. In this work microscopy analyses confirm the link between dislocations and anomalous leakage current. The leakage current of transistors and diodes is measured as a function of temperature and the dislocations responsible of this leakage are characterized by the spectrum analysis of the Emission Microscopy. However, in addition to an accurate characterization of the defects, it is necessary to identify a method to detect the formation of crystal defects at an early stage in the device fabrication process. In this paper, we describe how the passive voltage contrast in the KLA‐Tencor eS31 tool is used for this purpose. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)