Fermi level pinning characterisation on ammonium fluoride-treated surfaces of silicon by energy-filtered doping contrast in the scanning electron microscope

Two-dimensional dopant profiling using the secondary electron (SE) signal in the scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a technique gaining impulse for its ability to enable rapid and contactless low-cost diagnostics for integrated device manufacturing. The basis is doping contrast from electrical p-n junctions, which can be influenced by wet-chemical processing methods typically adopted in ULSI technology. This paper describes the results of doping contrast studies by energy-filtering in the SEM from silicon p-n junction specimens that were etched in ammonium fluoride solution. Experimental SE micro-spectroscopy and numerical simulations indicate that Fermi level pinning occurred on the surface of the treated-specimen, and that the doping contrast can be explained in terms of the ionisation energy integral for SEs, which is a function of the dopant concentration, and surface band-bending effects that prevail in the mechanism for doping contrast as patch fields from the specimen are suppressed.