Small angle neutron scattering measurements of nanoscale lithographic features

State-of-the-art lithographic techniques are able to fabricate structures f or the semiconductor and other nanofabrication industries with dimensions b elow 150 nm. The relentless drive to further miniaturize semiconductor devi ces has placed increasingly stringent demands on current microscopy-based t echniques for precisely measuring the size and the quality (line-edge rough ness) of lithographically produced features. Using newly developed neutron optics, we demonstrate the first application of small-angle neutron scatter ing to nondestructively and quantitatively measure both the dimension and t he quality of 150 nm lines fabricated on single crystal silicon wafers. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)07524-1].