Meeting the Challenges of Elemental Analysis in 90nm & Beyond Technologies - Case Studies of Scanning Auger Nanoprobe

In this paper few case studies of Auger elemental analysis in failure analysis of wafer fabrication, using a state-of-the-art scanning Auger nanoprobe, will be presented. Material identification in particle defects is quite challenging especially in advanced microelectronic technologies, 90nm and beyond, where, due to decreasing device size, the tight pitch and high aspect ratio of features introduces constraints of analysis. Thus, the case studies discussed in the paper are all pertaining to the front-end related defects, at poly+contact region of the die, where these contraints are expected to be severe. It will be shown that the scanning Auger nanoprobe can be used for the elemental analysis of features as small as 10nm.