Abstract

Low voltage (30 kV) field emission scanning transmission electron microscopy (FE‐STEM) has been employed in the characterization of state‐of‐the‐art semiconductor static random access memory (SRAM) using specimens prepared at several different thicknesses (70–180 nm). A focused ion beam (FIB) system, a FIB‐SEM compatible specimen holder and an in‐lens FE‐SEM have been employed for alternating between FIB milling and SEM/STEM imaging. As a result, ion implanted atom damage during manufacturing, grains in aluminium interconnects, poly silicon gates, thin metal barriers and a thin gate oxide layer were observed by low voltage FE‐STEM.

You do not currently have access to this article.