CN114088752A - Measuring method of semiconductor device - Google Patents

Measuring method of semiconductor device Download PDF

Info

Publication number
CN114088752A
CN114088752A CN202111287698.6A CN202111287698A CN114088752A CN 114088752 A CN114088752 A CN 114088752A CN 202111287698 A CN202111287698 A CN 202111287698A CN 114088752 A CN114088752 A CN 114088752A
Authority
CN
China
Prior art keywords
semiconductor device
peak
spectrogram
detection area
image
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Granted
Application number
CN202111287698.6A
Other languages
Chinese (zh)
Other versions
CN114088752B (en
Inventor
周鹏程
陈静
魏强民
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd
Original Assignee
Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd filed Critical Yangtze Memory Technologies Co Ltd
Priority to CN202111287698.6A priority Critical patent/CN114088752B/en
Publication of CN114088752A publication Critical patent/CN114088752A/en
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of CN114088752B publication Critical patent/CN114088752B/en
Active legal-status Critical Current
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical

Links

Images

Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
    • G01N23/00—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of wave or particle radiation, e.g. X-rays or neutrons, not covered by groups G01N3/00 – G01N17/00, G01N21/00 or G01N22/00
    • G01N23/20—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of wave or particle radiation, e.g. X-rays or neutrons, not covered by groups G01N3/00 – G01N17/00, G01N21/00 or G01N22/00 by using diffraction of the radiation by the materials, e.g. for investigating crystal structure; by using scattering of the radiation by the materials, e.g. for investigating non-crystalline materials; by using reflection of the radiation by the materials
    • G01N23/20091—Measuring the energy-dispersion spectrum [EDS] of diffracted radiation
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
    • G01N23/00—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of wave or particle radiation, e.g. X-rays or neutrons, not covered by groups G01N3/00 – G01N17/00, G01N21/00 or G01N22/00
    • G01N23/20—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of wave or particle radiation, e.g. X-rays or neutrons, not covered by groups G01N3/00 – G01N17/00, G01N21/00 or G01N22/00 by using diffraction of the radiation by the materials, e.g. for investigating crystal structure; by using scattering of the radiation by the materials, e.g. for investigating non-crystalline materials; by using reflection of the radiation by the materials
    • G01N23/20083—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of wave or particle radiation, e.g. X-rays or neutrons, not covered by groups G01N3/00 – G01N17/00, G01N21/00 or G01N22/00 by using diffraction of the radiation by the materials, e.g. for investigating crystal structure; by using scattering of the radiation by the materials, e.g. for investigating non-crystalline materials; by using reflection of the radiation by the materials by using a combination of at least two measurements at least one being a transmission measurement and one a scatter measurement
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G01—MEASURING; TESTING
    • G01N—INVESTIGATING OR ANALYSING MATERIALS BY DETERMINING THEIR CHEMICAL OR PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
    • G01N23/00—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of wave or particle radiation, e.g. X-rays or neutrons, not covered by groups G01N3/00 – G01N17/00, G01N21/00 or G01N22/00
    • G01N23/22—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of wave or particle radiation, e.g. X-rays or neutrons, not covered by groups G01N3/00 – G01N17/00, G01N21/00 or G01N22/00 by measuring secondary emission from the material
    • G01N23/225—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of wave or particle radiation, e.g. X-rays or neutrons, not covered by groups G01N3/00 – G01N17/00, G01N21/00 or G01N22/00 by measuring secondary emission from the material using electron or ion
    • G01N23/2251—Investigating or analysing materials by the use of wave or particle radiation, e.g. X-rays or neutrons, not covered by groups G01N3/00 – G01N17/00, G01N21/00 or G01N22/00 by measuring secondary emission from the material using electron or ion using incident electron beams, e.g. scanning electron microscopy [SEM]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L22/00—Testing or measuring during manufacture or treatment; Reliability measurements, i.e. testing of parts without further processing to modify the parts as such; Structural arrangements therefor
    • H01L22/10—Measuring as part of the manufacturing process
    • H01L22/12—Measuring as part of the manufacturing process for structural parameters, e.g. thickness, line width, refractive index, temperature, warp, bond strength, defects, optical inspection, electrical measurement of structural dimensions, metallurgic measurement of diffusions
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L22/00—Testing or measuring during manufacture or treatment; Reliability measurements, i.e. testing of parts without further processing to modify the parts as such; Structural arrangements therefor
    • H01L22/20—Sequence of activities consisting of a plurality of measurements, corrections, marking or sorting steps

Landscapes

  • Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Immunology (AREA)
  • Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
  • Analytical Chemistry (AREA)
  • Biochemistry (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Pathology (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
  • Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
  • Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
  • Power Engineering (AREA)
  • Crystallography & Structural Chemistry (AREA)
  • Dispersion Chemistry (AREA)
  • Analysing Materials By The Use Of Radiation (AREA)
  • Testing Or Measuring Of Semiconductors Or The Like (AREA)

Abstract

The invention provides a measuring method of a semiconductor device, which comprises the following steps: acquiring an image of a semiconductor device serving as an object to be detected, wherein the semiconductor device comprises a substrate and a semiconductor structure positioned on the substrate; selecting a detection area on the image, and carrying out energy spectrum analysis on the detection area by using an energy spectrometer to obtain an element spectrogram of the detection area; performing peak-splitting fitting on a first target peak of a first element and a second target peak of a second element in an element spectrogram to obtain a fitted element distribution spectrogram; the atomic proportion of the first element and/or the atomic proportion of the second element are/is obtained according to the fitted element distribution spectrogram so as to judge the size of the air hole of the first element.

Description

Measuring method of semiconductor device
[ technical field ] A method for producing a semiconductor device
The invention relates to the technical field of semiconductors, in particular to a measuring method of a semiconductor device.
[ background of the invention ]
Three-dimensional memory (3D NAND Flash) is widely applied to electronic equipment such as mobile phones and solid state disks due to the advantages of high storage density, high programming speed and the like. Three-dimensionalThe memory increases the storage capacity by stacking the memory cells. The structure of the memory cell includes gate layers and insulating layers which are alternately stacked. The gate layer is typically formed of tungsten and the insulating layer is typically formed of an oxide, such as silicon oxide (SiO)2). The void size (void size) of the tungsten in the gate layer has an important influence on the electrical performance of the device, and therefore, the void size of the tungsten in the gate layer needs to be measured accurately and rapidly.
The traditional method for measuring the size of the gap of the metal tungsten is to adopt automatic measurement software to identify and measure the size of the gap of the gate layer tungsten after a high-quality image is obtained by a Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM). However, because the boundary between the gap and the gate layer tungsten is fuzzy, the automatic measurement software is easy to have a boundary identification error, and the error data needs to be manually rejected by manually comparing the original STEM image, so that the whole measurement process is time-consuming and labor-consuming.
Therefore, the prior art has defects and needs to be improved and developed.
[ summary of the invention ]
The invention aims to provide a method for measuring a semiconductor device, which can accurately and quickly acquire the condition of air holes in a semiconductor structure so as to improve the accuracy and efficiency of testing.
In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a method for measuring a semiconductor device, comprising: acquiring an image of a semiconductor device serving as an object to be detected, wherein the semiconductor device comprises a substrate and a semiconductor structure positioned on the substrate; selecting a detection area on the image, and carrying out energy spectrum analysis on the detection area by using an energy spectrometer to obtain an element spectrogram of the detection area; performing peak-splitting fitting on a first target peak of a first element and a second target peak of a second element in an element spectrogram to obtain a fitted element distribution spectrogram; and obtaining the atomic ratio of the first element and/or the atomic ratio of the second element according to the fitted element distribution spectrogram so as to judge the size of the air hole of the first element.
Wherein the semiconductor structure includes gate layers and insulating layers alternately stacked in a first longitudinal direction perpendicular to a main surface of the substrate, wherein a material of the gate layers includes a first element and a material of the insulating layers includes a second element.
Wherein the detection region comprises at least one gate layer.
The semiconductor structure comprises a grid structure and stacked structures positioned on two sides of the grid structure, wherein the material of the grid structure comprises a first element, and the material of the stacked structures comprises a second element.
The semiconductor structure comprises an insulating layer and a conductive column positioned in the insulating layer, wherein the material of the conductive column comprises a first element, and the material of the insulating layer comprises a second element.
Wherein the detection area includes at least one conductive post.
Wherein the first element is a target element and the second element is a reference element.
Wherein the first element is tungsten and the second element is silicon.
Wherein the first target peak comprises an M peak, the second target peak comprises an L peak, and the range of the energy of the first target peak corresponding to the first target element and the energy of the second target peak corresponding to the second target element comprises 1.7 to 1.9 KeV.
Wherein the image comprises a scanning transmission electron microscopy image.
The invention has the beneficial effects that: different from the prior art, the invention provides a method for measuring a semiconductor device, which comprises the following steps: acquiring an image of a semiconductor device serving as an object to be detected, wherein the semiconductor device comprises a substrate and a semiconductor structure positioned on the substrate; selecting a detection area on the image, and carrying out energy spectrum analysis on the detection area by using an energy spectrometer to obtain an element spectrogram of the detection area; performing peak-splitting fitting on a first target peak of a first element and a second target peak of a second element in an element spectrogram to obtain a fitted element distribution spectrogram; and obtaining the atomic ratio of the first element and/or the atomic ratio of the second element according to the fitted element distribution spectrogram so as to judge the size of the air hole of the first element. The method can accurately and quickly acquire the air hole condition in the semiconductor structure so as to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the test.
[ description of the drawings ]
Fig. 1a is a STEM image of the entire semiconductor device in the related art.
Fig. 1b is a STEM image of a selected portion of a region of the semiconductor device of fig. 1 a.
FIG. 1c is a metrology image obtained by the automated metrology software of FIG. 1 b.
FIG. 1d is an enlarged image of a selected area of FIG. 1 c.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method for measuring a semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3a is an EDX Mapping image of a detection zone acquired in one embodiment of the invention.
Fig. 3b is an elemental spectrum of a detection zone obtained in one embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3c is a distribution spectrogram of W and Si elements corresponding to two different detection areas obtained in one embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4 is a graph comparing data obtained by two different methods of the present invention and the prior art.
[ detailed description ] embodiments
The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It is to be noted that the following examples are only illustrative of the present invention, and do not limit the scope of the present invention. Likewise, the following examples are only some but not all examples of the present invention, and all other examples obtained by those skilled in the art without any inventive step are within the scope of the present invention.
In addition, directional terms mentioned in the present invention, such as [ upper ], [ lower ], [ front ], [ rear ], [ left ], [ right ], [ inner ], [ outer ], [ side ], and the like, refer to directions of the attached drawings only. Accordingly, the directional terms used are used for explanation and understanding of the present invention, and are not used for limiting the present invention. In the various figures, elements of similar structure are identified by the same reference numerals. For purposes of clarity, the various features in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. Moreover, some well-known elements may not be shown in the figures.
The core area of the three-dimensional memory includes gate layers and insulating layers that are alternately stacked. Grid electrodeThe material of the layer is typically tungsten, while the material of the insulating layer is typically an oxide, such as silicon oxide (SiO)2). The void size (void size) of the tungsten in the gate layer has an important influence on the electrical performance of the device, and therefore, the void size of the tungsten in the gate layer needs to be accurately and rapidly measured. As shown in fig. 1a, a STEM image of the entire semiconductor device in the related art can be acquired by a Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM). And then selecting the area needing gap measurement in the STEM image of the whole semiconductor device. Fig. 1b shows a STEM image of a selected region of the stack structure of fig. 1 a. Subsequently, the gap (also called as void) of the tungsten in the gate layer in the stacked structure is measured by the automated measurement software, and a measurement result graph as shown in fig. 1c is obtained. As can be seen from fig. 1c, there is no line for automatically measuring the dimension in the middle area of the gate layer, i.e. the middle area is not identified by the automatic measurement software and the dimension measurement is performed. This is because the boundary between the middle region void and the tungsten in the gate layer is blurred, and the automated metrology software cannot effectively identify the boundary. In addition, identification errors are easy to occur in areas on two sides of the tungsten of the grid layer, error data are required to be manually eliminated by manually contrasting the original STEM images, and the whole measuring process is time-consuming and labor-consuming.
In view of the above, the present invention provides a method for measuring a semiconductor device, as shown in fig. 2, which is a schematic flow chart of the present invention, and the specific flow chart shown in fig. 1a and fig. 3a to 3c includes:
s101, a step: an image of a semiconductor device as an object to be tested is acquired, the semiconductor device including a substrate and a semiconductor structure located on the substrate.
Specifically, the semiconductor device includes a substrate and a semiconductor structure located on the substrate, where the substrate is used as a base for forming the semiconductor device and may be silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), or silicon germanium (GeSi), silicon carbide (SiC), or the like, or may be other materials, and is not particularly limited. The semiconductor structure may be formed on the substrate through one or more deposition processes, etching processes, chemical mechanical polishing processes, cleaning processes, and the like, and the specific structure and the film layer are related to the actual process flow.
Wherein the semiconductor structure includes gate layers and insulating layers alternately stacked in a first longitudinal direction perpendicular to a main surface of the substrate, wherein a material of the gate layers includes a first element and a material of the insulating layers includes a second element.
Specifically, the semiconductor structure may be gate layers and insulating layers alternately stacked in a first longitudinal direction perpendicular to a main surface of the substrate, the insulating layers serving to isolate the plurality of gate layers, and the insulating layers may be made of an oxide such as silicon oxide (SiO)2) And the material of the gate layer may be comprised of a conductive material, such as tungsten (W). As shown in fig. 1a, is an image of a semiconductor device acquired in one embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 1a, the semiconductor structure includes gate layers and insulating layers stacked alternately.
Wherein the image comprises a scanning transmission electron microscopy image.
Specifically, the manner of acquiring the image is not particularly limited, and the image of the semiconductor device as the object to be measured may be acquired by a scanning electron microscope or a scanning transmission electron microscope. Preferably, a scanning transmission electron microscope is selected to acquire an image of the semiconductor device as the object to be measured.
Before the step S101, the method further includes: and preparing an object to be tested for the semiconductor device. Specifically, in executing step S101: an image of a semiconductor device as an object to be tested is acquired, the semiconductor device including a substrate and a semiconductor structure on the substrate, the semiconductor device being a sample to be tested that has reached a test standard. However, there may be a case where, when the step S101 is performed, it is found that the semiconductor device needs to be subjected to the preparation of the object to be tested, for example, the semiconductor device needs to be cut, thinned, polished, and the like, so as to meet the sample preparation standard in the actual situation. The thinning treatment can be realized by Focused Ion Beam (FIB), or can also be realized by automatic grinding, and a proper mode can be selected according to actual conditions to treat the semiconductor device so as to reach the standard required by the sample.
S102, a step: and selecting a detection area on the image, and carrying out energy spectrum analysis on the detection area by using an energy spectrometer to obtain an element spectrogram of the detection area.
Specifically, a detection area is selected from the image, and an energy spectrum analysis is performed on the detection area by using an energy spectrometer, so as to obtain an EDX Mapping (area scanning) image of the detection area as shown in fig. 3a and an element spectrogram of the detection area as shown in fig. 3 b. Fig. 3a shows an EDX Mapping image of a region corresponding to the gate layers of the 1 st to 20 th layers as a detection region. Fig. 3b shows the element spectrum in the region corresponding to the gate layers from layer 1 to layer 20.
Specifically, an Energy Dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) is generally used as an accessory of an SEM or an STEM, and the working principle of the EDS is that a signal enters a si (li) detector through a thin beryllium window to form a charge pulse, the charge pulse is further amplified and converted into a voltage pulse through a preamplifier and a main amplifier, the voltage pulse is input to a multichannel analyzer to be converted into a digital signal, X photons are classified, calculated and stored, and the digital signal is further processed by a calculator to output an element spectrogram or data. The function of the spectrometer is to measure the wavelength (frequency) and intensity of the X-rays generated by the interaction of the electrons and the object to be measured. The energy spectrometer can be used for photon energy detection, energy spectrum qualitative analysis and energy spectrum quantitative analysis. Wherein, the quantitative analysis of the energy spectrum is to analyze the element content in the sample by means of the X-ray spectrum generated by the electron excitation of the sample with the micron or nanometer scale. The quantitative results may be expressed in terms of atomic percent, mass percent, atomic or mass fraction, moles or mass per unit volume, area or number of atoms per unit volume, as desired.
In addition, it should be noted that the element maps of the semiconductor structures corresponding to different detection regions may be obtained by selecting different detection regions, that is, the range of the detection region may be selected according to actual needs to obtain corresponding EDX Mapping images and element maps. The method for obtaining the element spectrogram of the detection area is not particularly limited, and it should be understood that any method selected to obtain the element spectrogram of the detection area is within the protection scope of the embodiments of the present application.
S103, a step: and performing peak-splitting fitting on a first target peak of the first element and a second target peak of the second element in the element spectrogram to obtain a fitted element distribution spectrogram.
Wherein the first element is tungsten and the second element is silicon.
Specifically, the abscissa shown in fig. 3b is the energy (in KeV) of each element spectrum, and the ordinate is the X-ray signal intensity (cps). As can be seen from the element spectrogram in fig. 3b, the obtained element spectrogram of the detection area includes multiple elements and X-ray peaks corresponding to the elements in different energy ranges, such as tungsten, oxygen, silicon, and aluminum. Comparing the EDX Mapping image of the detection zone as shown in FIG. 3a, it can be seen that the tungsten element in the element spectrum of FIG. 3b is derived from the tungsten element of the gate layer, the silicon element is derived from the silicon in the silicon oxide of the insulating layer, and the aluminum element is derived from the high-K oxide dielectric aluminum oxide (Al) outside the gate layer2O3) Therefore, the oxygen element in the element spectrum comes from alumina and silica outside the gate layer.
Wherein the detection region comprises at least one gate layer.
Specifically, when performing energy spectrum analysis on a device including alternately stacked gate layers and insulating layers, in order to obtain the situation of pores in one complete gate layer, the detection region should include at least one gate layer so as to obtain an element spectrum corresponding to the detection region including one gate layer.
Wherein the first element is a target element and the second element is a reference element.
Specifically, as can be seen from the above, in general, when energy spectrum analysis is performed on alternately stacked gate layers and insulating layers, tungsten elements in an element spectrum obtained are derived only from the gate layers, and silicon elements in the element spectrum are derived from the insulating layers. Meanwhile, the gate layers and the insulating layers which are alternately stacked are uniformly and equally spaced, namely, the thickness and the width of each layer of the gate layers and the insulating layers are consistent, and the area size of each selected detection area of the gate layers and the insulating layers is fixed. Correspondingly, when the gate layer is completely filled with metal tungsten through the deposition process, the atomic number of tungsten element and silicon element is also constant. When the grid layer is not completely filled, namely the air holes are formed in the middle of the grid layer, at the moment, the number of tungsten atoms in the detection area is related to the size of the air holes, the larger the air holes are, the smaller the number of tungsten atoms are, and the number of silicon atoms corresponding to the area occupied by the insulating layer is not related to the size of the air holes, namely in the detection area with the fixed size comprising one grid layer, the number of silicon elements in the detection area is certain, and the number of the tungsten elements in the detection area can be changed according to the size of the air holes. Therefore, the tungsten element (i.e., the first element) can be a target element for characterizing the size of the gas holes in the gate layer, and the silicon element (i.e., the second element) can be a reference element for characterizing the size of the gas holes in the gate layer.
Wherein the first target peak comprises W M peak, the second target peak comprises Sil peak, and the range of the energy of the first target peak corresponding to the first target element and the energy of the second target peak corresponding to the second target element comprises 1.7-1.9 KeV.
Specifically, the atomic ratio of the tungsten element and the silicon element cannot be directly obtained from the element spectrum shown in fig. 3b for determining the size of the tungsten gas hole of the gate layer, and further data processing needs to be performed on the element spectrum shown in fig. 3 b. As can be seen from fig. 3b, the first target peak M of the tungsten element and the second target peak L of the silicon element overlap in a region close to 1.7KeV, and in order to obtain the element spectrograms of the tungsten element and the silicon element, respectively, peak-splitting fitting needs to be performed on the tungsten element and the silicon element in the element spectrograms. The peak separation fitting generally comprises two steps, namely, the first step of heavy peak separation, the second step of fitting, and the peak separation fitting can be automatically completed through a data processing module in a computer.
Specifically, the separation of the heavy peaks may be performed by a heavy peak decomposition technique, for example, a spectrum stripping method is adopted, and the overlapping of the peaks is regarded as the linear superposition of spectral line data, so that the separation of the heavy peaks is realized by a multivariate linear equation; or fitting each overlapped spectral line by a Gaussian function by adopting a spectral function fitting method so as to realize the decomposition of the overlapped spectral lines; or the method of a neural network is utilized to realize the decomposition of the overlapped spectral lines. And then, fitting the separated peaks to obtain a tungsten element and silicon element fitting element distribution spectrogram.
And S104: and obtaining the atomic ratio of the first element and/or the atomic ratio of the second element according to the fitted element distribution spectrogram so as to judge the size of the air hole of the first element.
Specifically, the atomic ratio of the first element and/or the atomic ratio of the second element may be obtained according to the fitted element distribution spectrogram, so as to determine the pore size of the first element. As shown in fig. 3c, in an embodiment of the present invention, the abscissa of the element distribution spectrum of W and Si corresponding to two different detection regions is the energy (in KeV) of each element distribution spectrum, and the ordinate is the X-ray signal intensity (cps). Fig. 3c shows a distribution spectrum of the multi-corresponding fitting elements of the two detection regions. Wherein the left gray area is the L peak spectrum of Si, and the right black area is the M peak spectrum of W. According to the fitting result, the atomic ratio of the tungsten element and the silicon element can reflect the size of the tungsten gas hole of the gate layer, and the larger the ratio of the silicon element is, the larger the gas hole in the gate layer is. Comparing the left drawing and the right drawing in fig. 3c, it can be seen that the atomic ratio of the tungsten element in the left drawing of fig. 3c is higher than the atomic ratio of the tungsten element in the right drawing, the atomic ratio of the silicon element in the left drawing of fig. 3c is lower than the atomic ratio of the silicon element in the right drawing, and correspondingly, the size of the tungsten pores in the detection region corresponding to the left drawing of fig. 3c is smaller than the size of the pores in the detection region corresponding to the right drawing.
Specifically, as shown in fig. 4, a data comparison graph is obtained by two methods according to the present invention and the prior art, wherein a black curve with hollow dots is a size of a gas hole measured by using automatic measurement software, an abscissa of the curve is a number of layers of a gate layer, and an ordinate of the curve is a size of a gas hole of the gate layer. Where the gray curve with solid dots is the data obtained by the examples of the present application, the abscissa of the curve is the number of layers of the gate layer and the ordinate is the atomic ratio of the silicon element. As can be seen from the above, the larger the size of the gas holes in the gate layer, the smaller the atomic ratio of tungsten element, and correspondingly, the larger the atomic ratio of silicon element, i.e., the atomic ratio of silicon element is positively correlated with the size of the gas holes in the gate layer. As shown in fig. 4, after two curves are stacked together, the size variation trend of the air holes obtained by the prior art method is substantially the same as the variation trend of the atomic ratio of silicon element obtained by the energy spectrum analysis and the peak-splitting fitting according to the embodiment of the present application, which means that the method provided by the embodiment of the present application can accurately and quickly characterize the size of the air holes.
Specifically, the embodiment of the application obtains the information of the tungsten gas hole size of the gate layer by analyzing the atomic ratio of the tungsten element and the silicon element in the gate layer and the insulating layer which are alternately stacked by means of an EDX quantitative method. Compared with the method in the prior art, the method saves the time for automatic software measurement after the STEM image is acquired and the subsequent time for manually eliminating the error data, avoids the problem of error boundary identification possibly occurring in the measurement process, and can accurately and quickly acquire the information of the size of the air hole in the grid layer so as to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the test.
The semiconductor structure comprises a grid structure and stacked structures positioned on two sides of the grid structure, wherein the material of the grid structure comprises a first element, and the material of the stacked structures comprises a second element.
Specifically, the semiconductor structure may include gate layers and insulating layers stacked alternately, and the size of the air holes in the gate layers may be obtained by performing energy spectrum analysis and peak-splitting fitting on the gate layers and the insulating layers in the selected detection area. Typically, the material of the gate structure is tungsten (i.e., the first element), and the material of the stack structure on both sides includes a silicon oxide film, i.e., the material of the stack structure includes silicon (i.e., the second element). As can be seen from the above, tungsten element can be used as a target element for characterizing the size of the pores, and silicon element can be used as a reference element for characterizing the size of the pores, so that the sizes of the pores of different gate layers in the detection region can be characterized by the above-mentioned methods of energy spectrum analysis and peak-splitting fitting. By means of the EDX quantification method, the information of the size of the air hole of the grid structure is obtained by obtaining the atomic ratio of the tungsten element and the silicon element in the grid structure and the stacking structure, compared with the method in the prior art, the time for automatic software measurement after the STEM image is obtained and the subsequent time for manually removing error data are saved, the problem of error boundary identification possibly occurring in the measurement process is avoided, the condition of the air hole in the grid structure can be accurately and quickly obtained through the method, and the accuracy and the efficiency of the test are improved.
The semiconductor structure comprises an insulating layer and a conductive column positioned in the insulating layer, wherein the material of the conductive column comprises a first element, and the material of the insulating layer comprises a second element.
Specifically, the semiconductor structure may include an insulating layer and a conductive pillar in the insulating layer, where the conductive pillar is used to electrically connect an element located below the conductive pillar to an element located above the conductive pillar, the conductive pillar (CT) is formed by filling metal tungsten in the contact hole, and the insulating layer is used to separate the conductive pillars in the same layer. As can be seen from the above, the tungsten element can be used as a target element for characterizing the size of the air holes, and the silicon element can be used as a reference element for characterizing the size of the air holes, so that the size of the air holes in the conductive pillar can also be characterized by the above-mentioned methods of energy spectrum analysis and peak-splitting fitting.
Wherein the detection area includes at least one conductive post.
In particular, typically, a plurality of conductive pillars are formed in a semiconductor structure, and in order to obtain a complete air hole in a conductive pillar, the detection area should include at least one conductive post to obtain an elemental spectrum corresponding to the detection area including one conductive post, and then, the size of the air holes in the conductive columns is analyzed by obtaining the atomic ratio of the tungsten element and the silicon element in the semiconductor structure comprising the conductive columns and the insulating layer through an EDX quantitative method post-peak fitting method for the obtained element spectrogram, compared with the method in the prior art, the time for automatic software measurement after the STEM image is obtained is saved, and the subsequent time for manually eliminating the error data, the problem of error boundary identification possibly occurring in the measurement process is avoided, by the method, the condition of the air holes in the conductive columns can be accurately and quickly acquired, so that the accuracy and efficiency of testing are improved.
Different from the prior art, the method for measuring a semiconductor device in the embodiment includes: acquiring an image of a semiconductor device serving as an object to be detected, wherein the semiconductor device comprises a substrate and a semiconductor structure positioned on the substrate; selecting a detection area on the image, and carrying out energy spectrum analysis on the detection area by using an energy spectrometer to obtain an element spectrogram of the detection area; performing peak-splitting fitting on a first target peak of a first element and a second target peak of a second element in an element spectrogram to obtain a fitted element distribution spectrogram; and obtaining the atomic ratio of the first element and/or the atomic ratio of the second element according to the fitted element distribution spectrogram so as to judge the size of the air hole of the first element. The method can accurately and quickly acquire the information of the size of the air hole in the semiconductor structure so as to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the test.
The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting the invention, and any modifications, equivalents and improvements made within the spirit and principle of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A method for measuring a semiconductor device, comprising:
acquiring an image of a semiconductor device serving as an object to be detected, wherein the semiconductor device comprises a substrate and a semiconductor structure positioned on the substrate;
selecting a detection area on the image, and carrying out energy spectrum analysis on the detection area by using an energy spectrometer to obtain an element spectrogram of the detection area;
performing peak-splitting fitting on a first target peak of a first element and a second target peak of a second element in the element spectrogram to obtain a fitted element distribution spectrogram;
and obtaining the atomic ratio of the first element and/or the atomic ratio of the second element according to the fitted element distribution spectrogram so as to judge the size of the air hole of the first element.
2. A method of metrology of a semiconductor device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said semiconductor structure comprises alternately stacked gate layers and insulating layers along a first longitudinal direction perpendicular to a major surface of said substrate, wherein a material of said gate layers comprises said first element and a material of said insulating layers comprises said second element.
3. A method for metrology of a semiconductor device as claimed in claim 2 wherein said sensing region comprises at least one of said gate layers.
4. The method of measuring a semiconductor device of claim 1, wherein the semiconductor structure comprises a gate structure and a stack structure located on two sides of the gate structure, wherein the material of the gate structure comprises the first element and the material of the stack structure comprises the second element.
5. A method for measuring a semiconductor device according to claim 1, wherein the semiconductor structure comprises an insulating layer and a conductive pillar located in the insulating layer, wherein a material of the conductive pillar comprises the first element, and a material of the insulating layer comprises the second element.
6. The method for measuring a semiconductor device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the detection area comprises at least one conductive pillar.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first element is a target element and the second element is a reference element.
8. A method for measuring semiconductor device according to claim 1, 2, 4 or 5, wherein the first element is tungsten and the second element is silicon.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first target peak comprises an M peak, the second target peak comprises an L peak, and the range of the energy of the first target peak corresponding to the first target element and the energy of the second target peak corresponding to the second target element comprises 1.7KeV to 1.9 KeV.
10. A method of metrology of a semiconductor device as in claim 1 wherein said image comprises a scanning transmission electron microscopy image.
CN202111287698.6A 2021-11-02 2021-11-02 Method for measuring semiconductor device Active CN114088752B (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202111287698.6A CN114088752B (en) 2021-11-02 2021-11-02 Method for measuring semiconductor device

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202111287698.6A CN114088752B (en) 2021-11-02 2021-11-02 Method for measuring semiconductor device

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
CN114088752A true CN114088752A (en) 2022-02-25
CN114088752B CN114088752B (en) 2023-12-01

Family

ID=80298682

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
CN202111287698.6A Active CN114088752B (en) 2021-11-02 2021-11-02 Method for measuring semiconductor device

Country Status (1)

Country Link
CN (1) CN114088752B (en)

Citations (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
JPH10318949A (en) * 1997-05-21 1998-12-04 Ricoh Co Ltd Inspection device and semiconductor inspection method
CN1202002A (en) * 1997-06-06 1998-12-16 日本电气株式会社 Inspection pattern and method for semiconductor device
US5945349A (en) * 1995-07-19 1999-08-31 Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd. Method of enabling analysis of defects of semiconductor device with three dimensions
US6924484B1 (en) * 2002-11-19 2005-08-02 Kla-Tencor Corporation Void characterization in metal interconnect structures using X-ray emission analyses
KR100790276B1 (en) * 2006-12-11 2008-01-02 동부일렉트로닉스 주식회사 Method for moniterring defect of the semiconductor device
US20160189369A1 (en) * 2014-12-31 2016-06-30 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Method and system for detecting defects
US20190043183A1 (en) * 2017-08-01 2019-02-07 Applied Materials, Inc. Method for detecting voids and an inspection system
US20210000436A1 (en) * 2018-01-22 2021-01-07 Xenselab Llc Methods for x-ray imaging of a subject using multiple-energy decomposition
CN112630238A (en) * 2020-11-25 2021-04-09 长江存储科技有限责任公司 Method for measuring cavity
CN113097089A (en) * 2021-03-30 2021-07-09 长江存储科技有限责任公司 Method and system for determining film continuity

Patent Citations (10)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5945349A (en) * 1995-07-19 1999-08-31 Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd. Method of enabling analysis of defects of semiconductor device with three dimensions
JPH10318949A (en) * 1997-05-21 1998-12-04 Ricoh Co Ltd Inspection device and semiconductor inspection method
CN1202002A (en) * 1997-06-06 1998-12-16 日本电气株式会社 Inspection pattern and method for semiconductor device
US6924484B1 (en) * 2002-11-19 2005-08-02 Kla-Tencor Corporation Void characterization in metal interconnect structures using X-ray emission analyses
KR100790276B1 (en) * 2006-12-11 2008-01-02 동부일렉트로닉스 주식회사 Method for moniterring defect of the semiconductor device
US20160189369A1 (en) * 2014-12-31 2016-06-30 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Method and system for detecting defects
US20190043183A1 (en) * 2017-08-01 2019-02-07 Applied Materials, Inc. Method for detecting voids and an inspection system
US20210000436A1 (en) * 2018-01-22 2021-01-07 Xenselab Llc Methods for x-ray imaging of a subject using multiple-energy decomposition
CN112630238A (en) * 2020-11-25 2021-04-09 长江存储科技有限责任公司 Method for measuring cavity
CN113097089A (en) * 2021-03-30 2021-07-09 长江存储科技有限责任公司 Method and system for determining film continuity

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
CN114088752B (en) 2023-12-01

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US7245695B2 (en) Detection of dishing and tilting using X-ray fluorescence
CN113097089B (en) Method and system for determining film continuity
Granerød et al. Automated approaches for band gap mapping in STEM-EELS
CN101625302B (en) Method for preparing transmission electron microscope sample
CN110596157A (en) Method and device for measuring nitrogen content in semiconductor structure
CN110763716A (en) Test method and device
CN111397989A (en) Preparation method of inspection sample of semiconductor device
US7495217B1 (en) Film thickness and composition measurement via auger electron spectroscopy and electron probe microanalysis
JP2024507152A (en) High-resolution X-ray spectroscopy surface material analysis with transparent substrate
KR20210011657A (en) Analyzing System for Semiconductor Device and Method of Analyzing the Semiconductor Device
US20240044825A1 (en) Xps metrology for process control in selective deposition
CN114088752B (en) Method for measuring semiconductor device
Nowakowski et al. Top-down delayering by low energy, broad-beam, argon ion milling—A solution for microelectronic device process control and failure analyses
KR100955434B1 (en) Nondestructive characterization of thin films using measured basis spectra and/or based on acquired spectrum
CN114822676A (en) Calibration method of measuring device, standard sample for calibration and preparation method thereof
US6519543B1 (en) Calibration method for quantitative elemental analysis
US6603119B1 (en) Calibration method for quantitative elemental analysis
US6519542B1 (en) Method of testing an unknown sample with an analytical tool
CN114018760A (en) Method and device for detecting semiconductor structure
US11852467B2 (en) Method and system for monitoring deposition process
US20030222215A1 (en) Method for objective and accurate thickness measurement of thin films on a microscopic scale
JP4537149B2 (en) X-ray fluorescence analysis method
KR20210056407A (en) Image forming method and image forming system
US11145556B2 (en) Method and device for inspection of semiconductor samples
US11921063B2 (en) Lateral recess measurement in a semiconductor specimen

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
PB01 Publication
PB01 Publication
SE01 Entry into force of request for substantive examination
SE01 Entry into force of request for substantive examination
GR01 Patent grant
GR01 Patent grant