X-ray scattering from silicon surfaces: a useful tool for quality control

The semiconductor industry started to conquer the nm-scale in process techn ology to create the next generation of microsized integrated circuits. With the down-scaling of semiconductor structures, surfaces and interfaces need precise control to achieve high yielding integrated circuits. For roughnes s determination of high quality surfaces and thickness control of ultra-thi n layers, X-ray scattering proves to be an innovative tool. We demonstrate that specular and diffuse X-ray scattering from a silicon surface with a th in thermal oxide allows the precise determination of real structure paramet ers such as roughness, bulk density, oxide thickness, lateral correlation l ength and fractal dimension. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights rese rved.