Quantitative nanoscale metrology study of Cu/SiO2 interconnect technology using transmission x-ray microscopy

This letter describes quantitative nondestructive measurements of multilayer submicron Cu/SiO2 interconnect structures such as Cu lines, vias, and W lines with lateral dimensions down to 300 nm and electromigration defect structures using scanning transmission x-ray microscopy employing a 0.2 mum x-ray beam. Typical measurement accuracies are less than or equal to 60 nm for widths and lengths and less than or equal to 10% in height. The high-resolution and nondestructive nature of this technique provide a very powerful probe of physical properties of nanoscale and submicron materials and structures. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)05546-7].