Coherent Fourier Scatterometry for Detection of Killer Defects on Silicon Carbide Samples

Coherent Fourier Scatterometry for Detection of Killer Defects on Silicon Carbide Samples

Rafigh Doost, J. (TU Delft ImPhys/Pereira group)
Kolenov, D. (TU Delft ImPhys/Pereira group)
Pereira, S.F. (TU Delft ImPhys/Pereira group)

2023

It has been a widely growing interest in using silicon carbide (SiC) in high-power electronic devices. Yet, SiC wafers may contain killer defects that could reduce fabrication yield and make the device fall into unexpected failures. To prevent these failures from happening, it is very important to develop inspection tools that can detect, characterize and locate these defects in a non-invasive way. Current inspection techniques such as Dark Field or Bright field microscopy are effectively able to visualize most such defects; however, there are some scenarios where the inspection becomes problematic or almost impossible, such as when the defects are too small or have low contrast or if the defects lie deep into the substrate. Thus, an alternative method is needed to face these challenges. In this paper, we demonstrate the application of coherent Fourier scatterometry (CFS) as a complementary tool in addition to the conventional techniques to overcome different and problematic scenarios of killer defects inspection on SiC samples. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used to assess the same defects to validate the findings of CFS. Great consistency has been demonstrated in the comparison between the results obtained with CFS and SEM.

coherent Fourier scatterometry
killer defects
microscopy
Silicon carbide

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:e43a7796-c59f-46ad-b294-9ed61b1424a1

https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2023.3337720

0894-6507

IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing, 37 (1), 124-128

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2023 J. Rafigh Doost, D. Kolenov, S.F. Pereira