Advanced Metrologies for Wafer Contamination and Nanolayer Characterization Using XRF Methods

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analytical methods based on synchrotron radiation can effectively contribute to the characterization of both semiconductor surface contamination and nanolayered systems. Total-reflection XRF allows for contamination analysis, reference-free XRF for the determination of nanolayer thicknesses and composition, and grazing-incidence XRF for elemental depth profiling of nanolayered systems. Due to the tunability of synchrotron radiation, each of these XRF methods can be easily combined with NEXAFS investigation to determine the species of contamination as well as nanolayer constituents.