QUALIFICATION OF SPREADING RESISTANCE PROBE OPERATIONS

This article discusses the preliminary results obtained from an extens ive spreading resistance probe (SRP) intercomparison conducted between 21 international laboratories with different levels of expertise both in the U.S. and in eight European countries. In the first phase, iden tical raw SRP model data and model calibration curves were sent around for six different structures. The carrier and resistivity profiles ob tained from many different versions of software packages from three di fferent manufacturers were analyzed. The observed variations are mainl y dominated by radius variations and differences in applied mobility m odels. In the second phase, an extensive round robin was organized, in volving the measurement of 22 separate samples including submicron sou rce/drain and well implants and an ultrashallow sub-100 nm, 20 keV As implant. All samples were initially characterized by secondary ion mas s spectrometry and four point probe mappings. The SRP repeatability an d reproducibility for dose, sheet resistance, and junction depth obtai ned from a statistical analysis as defined by the International ISO 57 25 standard are discussed as well as basic operational parameters such as bevel surface roughness, probe penetration, and bevel angle accura cy. All results indicate that there is a need for better international standardization of SRP operations. (C) 1998 American Vacuum Society.