In this application note, IMEC shows that spreading resistance microscopy (SSRM) and scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) can meet the challenges of carrier profiling the state-of-the-art devices entering the sub 10 nm nodes given the right microscopy tool. Their investigation found that Park NX-Hivac is the powerful tool that meets the challenges of ever shrinking devices with its implementation of electrical SPM modes, including SSRM and SCM, in a high vacuum environment.
They review the performance of the Park NX-Hivac atomic force microscope (AFM) from Park Systems for SSRM and SCM applications, based on the following three samples:
1. A p-type doped silicon calibration sample (IMEC CS08-SiB): a sample consisting of various Boron doped epitaxial silicon layers (~600 nm) with known doping concentration.
2. An n-type doped silicon calibration sample (IMEC CS01-SiAs): a sample consisting of various arsenic doped epitaxial silicon layers with known doping concentration (Figure 5). This sample additionally has a p-type doped layer embedded in the stack.
3. Buried oxide sample: a 0.5 nm oxide layer sandwiched in between a highly doped Si and a poly Si layer (Figure 2). These samples are measured on the Park NX-Hivac AFM system, operating in vacuum conditions (~5e-5 mbar) using IMEC Full Diamond probes.
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