W. Vandervorst et al., 2-DIMENSIONAL SPREADING RESISTANCE PROFILING - RECENT UNDERSTANDINGS AND APPLICATIONS, Journal of vacuum science & technology. B, Microelectronics and nanometer structures processing, measurement and phenomena, 12(1), 1994, pp. 276-282
Conceptually the use of spreading resistance measurements for two-dime
nsional profiling has been introduced two years ago. In the mean time
our understanding has improved towards a better interpretation of the
experimental results. A simulation program has been realized which all
ows to simulate the spreading resistance scans along the specially bev
eled surface. An ''in situ'' calibration procedure for measuring with
high accuracy, the probe size and separation has been developed and a
new formula, with less experimental involved parameters, for calculati
ng the lateral spread has been derived. The technique has been applied
to a study of the lateral diffusion of B as a function of annealing t
ime. The effect of different masking material (polycrystalline silicon
, thick oxide) has been studied. Other recent applications of this tec
hnique include the determination of the lateral straggling of channeli
ng implants and the lateral diffusion of transition metals.