Automated SEM Image Acquisition and Metrology

Motivation:

Nanofabrication and electron or laser beam lithography require SEM investigation for improving and monitoring processes and results. Desired high-fidelity structures and devices can only be fabricated with careful process calibration and continuous measurements of critical patterns. While there is an increasing demand of advanced metrology, CD-SEMs used in the semiconductor industry are not the ideal solution in all cases, being more costly and limited in flexibility. Here, we introduce a workflow based on analytical SEMs and ProSEM for a combined automated image acquisition and measurement.

Solution:

We provide an overview of interfacing ProSEM to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and explain the workflow for both automatically acquiring SEM images, as well as applying metrology methods to the obtained set of images. This approach is specifically based on a lithography layout file, used to define the metrology at locations of interest, navigate the SEM for image acquisition, and measure at the detected features and contours.