High-Resolution Metrology in the TEM

Abstract

The transmission electron microscope (TEM) is well known as the technique of choice for visualization and measurement of features at near-atomic length scales, particularly for semiconductor devices. For example, a critical measurement of interest may be the thickness of the gate oxide in a transistor. The accuracy of these measurements is based on calibrated distances at each magnification. The term accuracy conveys the extent to which the measurement minimizes the difference between the measured value and the true value. The associated term precision is the closeness of agreement in a series of measurements locating the end-points of a measurement line. This article describes a method that increases the accuracy of metrology measurements applied to a high-resolution TEM image.