Impurity measurements in silicon with D-SIMS and atom probe tomography

Dynamic SIMS profiling of impurities has demonstrated capabilities for measuring shallow distributions with good accuracy and has become a correlating measurement for other methods of dopant profiling such as SSRM or electron holography. Atom probe tomography (APT) with laser assisted evaporation is a three-dimensional compositional measurement technique. Arsenic accumulations at an oxide interface are used to compare depth scale resolution, showing 500 eV SIMS is equivalent to the APT resolution. Surface analysis of boron shows the APT depth scale resolution comparable to depth scale corrected SIMS profiling, though calibration methods for the APT still need development.