Comparative study of polysilicon-on-oxide using spectroscopic ellipsometry, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy

Polysilicon layers prepared by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LP-CVD) on oxidized silicon were measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). SE was used to determine layer thicknesses and compositions using multi-layer optical models. The measured spectra were simulated and fitted using a linear regression algorithm (LRA). The dielectric function of composite materials was calculated by the Bruggeman effective medium approximation (B-EMA). The dependence of the surface roughness and layer structure on the deposition temperature was studied. The interface layer between the buried oxide and the polysilicon layer, which represents the initial phase of growth, was modeled with a thin layer having polycrystalline silicon and voids. The precision of the SE layer thickness measurements was determined by a comparison with AFM and TEM results taking into account the 95% confidence limits of the LRA. The root mean square (RMS) roughness values measured by AFM using different scan sizes were compared to the thicknesses of the top layer in the SE model simulating the surface roughness. It was shown that the correlation between the SE and the AFM surface roughness results are affected by the scan size of AFM and the surface characteristics. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A.