Metrology Challenges for Emerging Research Devices and Materials

As silicon complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology approaches its limits, new device structures and computational paradigms will be required to replace and augment standard CMOS devices for ULSI circuits. These possible emerging technologies span the realm from transistors made from silicon nanowires to heteroepitaxial layers for spin transistors to devices made from nanoscale molecules. One theme that pervades these seemingly disparate emerging technologies is that the electronic properties of these nanodevices are extremely susceptible to small perturbations in structural and material properties such as dimension, structure, roughness, and defects. The extreme sensitivity of the electronic properties of these devices to their nanoscale physical properties defines a significant need for precise accurate metrology. This paper will describe some of the most critical metrology required to characterize materials and devices in the research and exploratory stage and how these requirements would potentially change if these research devices were to start into a technology development effort