SOFT-X-RAY SPECTROMICROSCOPY AND ITS APPLICATION TO SEMICONDUCTOR MICROSTRUCTURE CHARACTERIZATION

The universal trend towards device miniaturization has driven the semi conductor industry to develop sophisticated and complex instrumentatio n for the characterization of microstructures. Many significant proble ms of relevance to the semiconductor industry cannot be solved with co nventional analysis techniques, but can be addressed with soft X-ray s pectromicroscopy. An active spectromicroscopy program is being develop ed at the Advanced Light Source, attracting both the semiconductor ind ustry and the materials science academic community. Examples of spectr omicroscopy techniques are presented. An Advanced Light Source mu-XPS spectromicroscopy project is discussed, involving the first microscope completely dedicated and designed for microstructure analysis on patt erned silicon wafers.