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Polarization parametric indirect microscopic imaging for patterned device line edge inspection

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Abstract

To know the line edge inspection in any pattern device, super-resolution optical microscope is efficient and necessary due to diffraction limit. As a step toward these issues, we are reporting the polarization parametric indirect microscopic imaging for patterned device line edge inspection. Sub-nanometer resolution imaging techniques such as atomic force microscope (AFM) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) can cause injurious damage to the sample, and it is more costly, time-taking imaging system. The optical microscopy has better imaging effectiveness, low cost, easy assemble. However, the optical microscopes still have to overcome a critical limit in optical resolution caused by the diffraction of visible light. Three different samples with different thickness have been studied. In this new attempt, we examined whether the etched part is fully etched without SiNx, (SiNx SiO2 + Au) in sample 1, 2 and without photoresist in sample 3, respectively. The maximum line edge resolution of PIMI image is better than resolution of the conventional microscope. All the measurements have been done by parametric indirect microscopic imaging (PIMI) system. PIMI images of third pattern device have been compared with the SEM images.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support by the NSFC Grant (No. 61275163), Research Fund for International Young Scientists NSFC Grant (No. 61750110520), Jiangsu Postdoc Research Fund Grant (1601001B) and National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFF0107100).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, 200 Xiaolingwei, Nanjing, 210094, China

    Nagendra Yadav, Weize Wang, Kaleem Ullah & Xuefeng Liu

Authors
  1. Nagendra Yadav
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  2. Weize Wang
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  3. Kaleem Ullah
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  4. Xuefeng Liu
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Correspondence to Nagendra Yadav or Xuefeng Liu.

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Yadav, N., Wang, W., Ullah, K. et al. Polarization parametric indirect microscopic imaging for patterned device line edge inspection. Appl. Phys. B 124, 167 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-018-7037-3

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