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A Study on the Sub-5 nm Nano-Step Height Reference Materials Fabricated by Atomic Layer Deposition Combined with Wet Etching

Nano-steps, as classical nano-geometric reference materials, are very important for calibrating measurements in the semiconductor industry; therefore, controlling the height of nano-steps is critical for ensuring accurate measurements. Accordingly, in this study nano-steps with heights of 1, 2, 3 an...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wang, Chenying, Li, Lei, Jing, Weixuan, Zhang, Yaxin, Wang, Song, Lin, Qijing, Xian, Dan, Mao, Qi, Zhang, Yijun, Duan, Duanzhi, Liu, Ming, Jiang, Zhuangde
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9506470/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36144077
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi13091454
Descripción
Sumario:Nano-steps, as classical nano-geometric reference materials, are very important for calibrating measurements in the semiconductor industry; therefore, controlling the height of nano-steps is critical for ensuring accurate measurements. Accordingly, in this study nano-steps with heights of 1, 2, 3 and 4 nm were fabricated with good morphology using atomic layer deposition (ALD) combined with wet etching. The roughness of the fabricated nano-steps was effectively controlled by utilizing the three-dimensional conformal ALD process. Moreover, the relationship between the surface roughness and the height was studied using a simulation-based analysis. Essentially, roughness control is crucial in fabricating nano-steps with a critical dimension of less than 5 nm. In this study, the minimum height of a nano-step that was successfully achieved by combining ALD and wet etching was 1 nm. Furthermore, the preconditions for quality assurance for a reference material and the influencing factors of the fabrication method were analyzed based on the 1 nm nano-step sample. Finally, the fabricated samples were used in time-dependent experiments to verify the optimal stability of the nano-steps as reference materials. This research is instructive to fabricate nano-geometric reference materials to within 5 nm in height, and the proposed method can be easily employed to manufacture wafer-sized step height reference materials, thus enabling its large-scale industrial application for in-line calibration in integrated circuit production lines.