Trends in total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry for metallic contamination control in semiconductor nanotechnology

The development of transistor manufacturing into the nanoscale regime is accompanied by a continuous awareness concern for contamination control. The ever-increasing demands for analysis sensitivity (in the sub-109 at/cm2 regime) combined with the introduction of new materials (i.e. non-silicon based) put severe challenges on the application of analytical techniques for atomic level contamination monitoring. Since many years, total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (TXRF) has developed as a preferred technique, ideally suitable due to the excellent reflectivity and flatness of the starting Si substrates. Driven by performance enhancement requirements, many new materials are being introduced at the substrate level (Ge, III/V compounds for higher mobility), gate stack (alternative dielectric materials and gate electrodes for capacitance scaling) and interconnect level (low-k and copper for faster switching). This paper reviews some recent developments in the state-of-the-art TXRF developments for semiconductor applications. Among the focus areas are the expansion of the elemental range (through multi-excitation line selection or multi-excitation source to excite low Z as well as high Z elements in one analysis sweep) and dynamic range (by pre-concentration techniques, synchrotron radiation analysis and detector developments). Further, emphasis is also focused towards quantification issues—whereby the three methodologies (micro-droplet, film and bulk type standards) are critically reviewed. Also, a recent development of sweeping TXRF, suitable for fast screening of large surface areas is being discussed. The applications of TXRF in a semiconductor environment are being reviewed. Finally, the performance of TXRF for the various semiconductor applications is assessed with respected to competitive techniques.