An Investigation of Plasma Charging Effect on FinFET Front-End-of-Line Processes

This work investigates plasma induced charging effect on FinFET front-end-of-line (FEOL) plasma processes. Based on the plasma induced damage (PID) recorder which monitors back-end-of-line (BEOL) processes, a refined version is proposed for the evaluation of PID in FEOL processes. This modified PID recorder along with systematic approaches evaluating sources of charging events during fabrication processes can provide insight into further optimization of FinFET technologies.