Analysis of Voltage Contrast in Secondary Electron Images Using a High-energy Electron Spectrometer

摘要

Voltage contrast (VC) observation using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) or a focused ion beam (FIB) is a common failure analysis technique for semiconductor devices. The VC information allows understanding of failure localization issues. In general, VC images are acquired using secondary electrons (SEs) from a sample surface at an acceleration voltage of 0.8-2.0 kV in SEM. In this study, we aimed to find an optimized electron energy range for VC acquisition using Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) for quantitative understanding.