The analysis of a thin SiO2/Si3N4/SiO2 stack: A comparative study of low-energy heavy ion elastic recoil detection, high-resolution Rutherford backscattering and secondary ion mass spectrometry

Abstract

The analysis of thin films in the range of 10nm and less has become very important in microelectronics. The goal of this article is an evaluation of low-energy TOF-ERDA (time-of-flight elastic recoil detection analysis) in comparison with low-energy SIMS (secondary ion mass spectrometry) and HRBS (high-resolution Rutherford backscattering spectrometry), using a thin SiO2/Si3N4/SiO2 stack as a test vehicle. Comparisons are made on the depth resolution, its loss as a function of depth and the quantification accuracy.