Semiconductor inspection device and probe unit
11513138 ยท 2022-11-29
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
G01R31/2868
PHYSICS
International classification
Abstract
Provided is a semiconductor inspection device capable of high-speed response analysis as defect analysis of a fine-structured device constituting an LSI. Therefore, the semiconductor inspection device includes a vacuum chamber 3, a sample table 4 which is disposed in the vacuum chamber and on which a sample 6 is placed, an electron optical system 1 disposed such that an electron beam is emitted from above the sample, a plurality of probe units 24 connected to external devices 11 and 12 disposed outside the vacuum chamber via a coaxial cable 10, and an electrode 5 provided on or in the vicinity of the sample table. The probe unit 24 includes a measurement probe 8 configured to come into contact with the sample, a GND terminal 9 configured to come into contact with the electrode 5, and a probe holder 7 configured to hold the measurement probe and the GND terminal, connect a signal line of the coaxial cable to the measurement probe, and connect a GND line of the coaxial cable to the GND terminal. When the measurement probe of the probe unit comes into contact with the sample, the GND terminal comes into contact with the electrode.
Claims
1. A fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using an electron microscope comprising: a vacuum chamber; a sample table which is disposed in the vacuum chamber and on which a sample is placed; an electron optical system disposed such that an electron beam is emitted from above the sample; a plurality of probe units connected to an external device disposed outside the vacuum chamber via a coaxial cable; and an electrode provided on or in the vicinity of the sample table, wherein the probe unit includes a measurement probe configured to come into contact with the sample, a GND terminal configured to come into contact with the electrode, and a probe holder configured to hold the measurement probe and the GND terminal, connect a signal line of the coaxial cable to the measurement probe, and connect a GND line of the coaxial cable to the GND terminal, the GND terminal is a plate-shaped metal wire having a stepped shape, and when the measurement probe of the probe unit comes into contact with the sample, the GND terminal comes into contact with the electrode.
2. The fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 1, wherein the electrode has a ring shape and is provided on the sample table, and the sample is placed inside the ring-shaped electrode.
3. The fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 1, wherein the electrode has a circular shape, and the sample table is disposed on a sample table receiver provided on the electrode.
4. The fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 1, wherein a contact surface of the electrode with the GND terminal is provided on a part of an edge of the sample table and faces each other, and the measurement probe of the probe unit is brought into contact with the sample in a direction in which the contact surface is disposed on the sample table.
5. The fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 1, wherein the GND terminal is a combination of a plurality of plate-shaped metal wires.
6. The fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 1, wherein a part of the GND terminal which comes into contact with the electrode has an arc shape.
7. The fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 1, wherein the probe holder includes a connector portion configured to connect the signal line of the coaxial cable and the measurement probe, and the connector portion has a coaxial structure.
8. The fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 1, wherein the coaxial cable is a tri-axial cable, and the probe holder connects an intermediate conductor and a GND line of the tri-axial cable to the GND terminal.
9. A probe unit of a fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using an electron microscope configured to bring a measurement probe into contact with a sample placed on a sample table disposed in a vacuum chamber, the probe unit comprising: a probe holder including a connector portion configured to connect a signal line of a coaxial cable and the measurement probe; and a GND terminal configured to come into contact with an electrode provided on or in the vicinity of the sample table, wherein the GND terminal is a plate-shaped metal wire having a stepped shape, and the GND terminal is attached to the probe holder so that the GND terminal comes into contact with the electrode when the measurement probe comes into contact with the sample.
10. The probe unit of the fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 9, wherein the GND terminal is a combination of a plurality of plate-shaped metal wires.
11. The probe unit of the fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 9, wherein a part of the GND terminal which comes into contact with the electrode has an arc shape.
12. The probe unit of the fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 9, wherein the connector portion has a coaxial structure.
13. The probe unit of the fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 9, wherein the coaxial cable is a tri-axial cable, and the probe holder connects an intermediate conductor and a GND line of the tri-axial cable to the GND terminal.
14. The fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 1, wherein a tip diameter of the measurement probe is about R10 nm.
15. The probe unit of the fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system using the electron microscope according to claim 9, wherein a tip diameter of the measurement probe is about R10 nm.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
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DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
(16) A fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system of the present embodiment will be described with reference to
(17) A scanning electron microscope includes an electron optical system 1, a detector 2, and a vacuum chamber 3 as main components thereof. A measurement sample 6 is placed on a sample table 4 in the vacuum chamber 3. A GND electrode 5 is provided on an upper surface of the sample table 4. In a probe unit 24 in the present embodiment, a probe holder 7 connected to a coaxial cable 10 holds a measurement probe 8 and a GND terminal 9. The measurement probe 8 is in contact with the measurement sample 6, and the GND terminal 9 is in contact with the GND electrode 5 on the sample table 4. The probe unit 24 is connected to a driving device (not shown) for moving a sample surface of the measurement sample 6. By an operation of this driving device, the measurement probe 8 comes into contact with a predetermined position of the measurement sample 6, and at the same time, the GND terminal 9 comes into contact with the GND electrode 5.
(18) An operator brings the measurement probe 8 into contact with the measurement sample 6 while observing an electron microscope image obtained by emitting an electron beam to the measurement sample 6 from the electron optics system 1. In the example, a function generator 11 is connected to one measurement probe via a coaxial cable, and an oscilloscope 12 is connected to the other measurement probe by a coaxial cable. An electronic circuit, a measuring device, or the like placed outside the vacuum chamber 3 and connected to the probe unit with the coaxial cable is referred to as an external device in the present description. Accordingly, a high frequency signal output from the function generator 11 is input to the measurement sample 6 through the one measurement probe, and an output signal output in response to the high frequency signal from the measurement sample 6 is transmitted to the oscilloscope 12 through the other measurement probe.
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(20) Further, since the sample table 4 is usually set to the reference potential when observation is performed with the electron microscope, the GND electrode 5 can be integrally configured with the sample table 4. In this case, the GND electrode 5 means a contact surface with the GND terminal 9 on the sample table 4. Further, when the measurement probe 8 is brought into contact with a measurement contact of the measurement sample 6, the driving device of the probe unit moves the probe unit down from above (in an optical axis direction of the electron optics system 1) and implements the contact with a predetermined contact pressure. At this time, the GND terminal 9 also needs to be in contact with the GND electrode 5 with a contact pressure equal to or higher than a predetermined value. Therefore, the GND electrode 5 and a sample placing surface (an inner part of the ring-shaped GND electrode) on the sample table 4 are at the same height in
(21) Here, the GND terminal 9 provided in the probe holder 7 has a stepped shape, and more preferably, at least the distal end portion in contact with the GND electrode 5 has an arc shape. This is to make it possible to cope with delicate contact in a nano region. A principle thereof will be described below.
(22) From the simulation results shown in
(23) Further, another advantage of the stepped shape will be described.
(24) Further, it is desirable that the GND terminal 9 has the arc shape. An effect of an arc-shaped electrode will be described with reference to
(25) With the structure of the probe unit as described above, the GND line can be short-circuited while avoiding the spatial restrictions specific to the nanoprober device.
(26) A modification of the probe unit structure will be described. Since the measurement probe 8 is a metal wire, the longer the measurement probe 8, the more easily the signal deteriorates. Therefore, in a probe unit 50 shown in
(27) Further,
(28) Further, in the nanoprober device, in direct current measurement, it is required to measure a micro current on an order of femtoampere. Normally, when a micro DC current is measured with the nanoprober device, a tri-axial cable (triple coaxial cable) is used instead of the coaxial cable. As shown in
(29) In contrast, when high frequency measurement is performed, the intermediate conductor 63 and the outer conductor 65 of the tri-axial cable 60 are short-circuited, so to speak, the tri-axial cable is used as the coaxial cable. In the present embodiment, by replacing the probe holder, both direct current measurement and high frequency measurement can be performed.
(30) Next, a structure of the GND electrode 5 provided on the sample table 4 will be described with reference to
(31) In delicate probing in a nano region, a controllable actuator in a nano order using characteristics of a piezo element is driven to bring a fine measurement probe into precise contact with a measurement sample. Not only spatial and environmental constraints of the vacuum chamber, but also an existence of a complicated probing mechanism equipped with the actuator is a spatial constraint around the measurement sample. In particular, in a typical nanoprober device, the plurality of (eight in this example) measurement probes are disposed at the same time as shown in
(32) A modification of the structure of the GND electrode 5 will be described with reference to
(33) Further, even when the GND electrode is provided on the sample table, the invention is not limited to the mode shown in
First Embodiment
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(35) First, a measurement contact of the 65 nm generation transistor is polished until it comes out to a surface. The measurement contact is placed on the sample table 4 as a measurement sample of the fine-structured device characteristics evaluation system, and the measurement probe 8 is brought into contact with the measurement contact. Specifically, the measurement probe 8 is brought into contact with a contact of each of a source, a drain, a gate of the transistor and a substrate. The measurement probes 8 of the probe units 24a and 24b are respectively brought into contact with the drain of the transistor and the substrate, the measurement probe 8 of the probe unit 24c is brought into contact with the gate of the transistor, and the measurement probe 8 of the probe unit 24d is brought into contact with the source of the transistor.
(36) After each measurement probe 8 is brought into contact with each contact of the transistor, 1 V is applied to the drain, 0 V is applied to the substrate, a pulse (1 V) having a width of 5 ns corresponding to 100 MHz is applied to the gate from the function generator 11, and a signal from the source is observed. Transistor failure can be determined by comparing a response waveform from a normal transistor and a response waveform from a defective transistor that can be observed in this way, for example, by comparing a rise time in the response waveform.
Second Embodiment
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(38) A signal pulse is input from the function generator 11 to the logic circuit by bringing probe units 24e and 24f into contact with two input terminals of the logic circuit (NAND circuit), respectively. Further, a power supply voltage is applied from the semiconductor parameter analyzer 45 by bringing a probe unit 24h into contact with a power supply terminal of the logic circuit. Instead of the semiconductor parameter analyzer 45, a power supply circuit DC capable of outputting the DC voltage may be used. An output of the logic circuit is monitored by the oscilloscope 12 by bringing a probe unit 24g into contact with the output of the logic circuit. Further, a signal from the function generator 11 is divided in two directions via a splitter 46, one is input to the oscilloscope 12 as a reference signal, and the other is input to the measurement sample 6. In response to changes in the input signal by the function generator 11, in the oscilloscope 12, the signal from the function generator 11 input as the reference signal is NAND calculated and collated with the monitored output signal of the logic circuit (NAND circuit), so that an operation of the logic circuit can be checked.
(39) The invention has been described above using the plurality of embodiments. The invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments and includes various modifications. For example, the above-described embodiments have been described for easy understanding of the invention, and the invention is not necessarily limited to those including all configurations described above. A part of a configuration of one embodiment can be replaced with a configuration of another embodiment, and a configuration of another embodiment can be added to a configuration of one embodiment. Further, a part of a configuration of each embodiment may be added to, deleted from or replaced with a configuration of another configuration.
REFERENCE SIGN LIST
(40) 1 electron optical system 2 detector 3 vacuum chamber 4, 74, 80 sample table 5, 75, 81 GND electrode 6 measurement sample 7, 51, 71, 73 probe holder 8 measurement probe 9, 55 GND terminal 10 coaxial cable 11 function generator 12 oscilloscope 21 central conductor (signal line) 22 insulating material 23 outer conductor (GND line) 24, 50, 70, 72 probe unit 45 semiconductor parameter analyzer 46 splitter 52 connector portion 56, 57 plate-shaped metal wire 60 tri-axial cable 61 central conductor (signal line) 62 first insulating material 63 intermediate conductor (guard) 64 second insulating material 65 outer conductor (GND line) 82 sample table receiver 76 sample placing surface 100 sample 101 pulse generator 102 oscilloscope 103 coaxial cable 104 outer conductor (GND line) 105 insulating material 106 central conductor (signal line) 107 measurement probe 108 short-circuit line