Combined x-ray tool for process control of compound dielectric films

Thickness is an important parameter that must be controlled in the production of films for microelectronic devices. If a film is composed of two or more components, composition control is also essential, because small changes in composition results in significant changes in the electric properties of dielectric materials. XRF has been used for the simultaneous determination of thickness and composition. However, there are several problems with this method. Therefore, we developed a new tool that combines the X-ray interference method (XI) and grazing incidence X-ray fluorescence method (GIXRF).