In-line monitoring of strain distribution using high resolution X-ray Reciprocal space mapping into 20 nm SiGe pMOS

Abstract

Together with the downscaling comes the introduction of new materials, such as strained SiGe, in order to boost the transistor performances. For an effective deployment it requires the implementation of methods capable to monitor the strain directly in the process lines. High Resolution X-Ray Diffraction has played a critical role in industry for thin films metrology purpose and have the potential to extend its capability to the strain characterization in the transistors. The latest industrial instruments provide fast and automatic measurement capabilities. This enables the use of Reciprocal Space Mapping (RSM), a key feature for strain characterization, as a monitoring method. To do so, automatic data extraction of RSMs is of course mandatory, so preliminary work performed on RSM treatment will be introduced in this paper. So far these studies have been carried out on nanostructures representative of transistor technologies and reveal innovative and conclusive results.