Challenge:

As design rules shrink to 65 nm and below, CD measurements are no longer enough to determine device characteristics and ensure performance. New metrology challenges demand measurement of the full profile of a structure such as height, depth, and sidewall angle (SWA) of vertical profiles, foot, notch, high aspect ratio contacts, and more.

As the correlation between test structures and in-device parameters deteriorates, the need for in-die measurement capabilities increases. Shrinking process windows dictate similar shrinkage of the Total Metrology Uncertainty (TMU), making high precision and fleet (tool-to-tool) matching a critical requirement for metrology solutions, while maintaining high throughput and low Cost of Ownership. Optical CD solutions are widely used in Etch, Lithography, CMP and CVD, in many cases to replace CDSEM systems.

Solution:

Nova’s metrology systems, based on patented normal incidence spectroscopic scatterometry, provide full Optical CD and shape profiling for 2D and 3D structures on test pads and in-die. Nova’s metrology products feature industry-leading fleet (tool-to-tool) matching and the highest throughput, providing both Stand-Alone (SA) and Integrated Metrology (IM) Optical CD and shape profiling solutions for technology nodes down to 32nm. Both SA and IM architectures are fully compatible in recipe transferability and fleet matching.

NovaMARS software provides 2D and 3D modeling and applications development capabilities, enabling measurements of complex and in-die structures as well as multi-layer stacks. Predicting solution sensitivity, NovaMARS makes possible the development of sensitive test structures as well as forecasting parameter correlation before taking the actual measurement.