Film thickness measurement method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9400172-B2
Application number	US-201114346306-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 26, 2011
Priority date	Oct 26, 2011
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

A measurement target including a semiconductor substrate, and a first epitaxial layer and a second epitaxial layer stacked in this order on the semiconductor substrate and having no difference in refractive index of a real part from the semiconductor substrate is subjected to reflection interference analysis using a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The thickness of the first epitaxial layer is used as a fitting parameter so as to prevent shift between an interference waveform of a resultant reflection interference pattern containing distortion appearing in a wave number range near an abnormal dispersion range of a refractive index caused by phonon absorption and an interference waveform of a numerically calculated reflection interference pattern in the same wave number range. The thickness of the first epitaxial layer determined during the fitting of the numerically calculated reflection interference pattern is defined as a measured value of the thickness of the first epitaxial layer.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A film thickness measurement method conducted by reflection interference analysis using a Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, comprising the steps of:
(a) preparing a measurement target including a semiconductor substrate, and a first epitaxial layer and a second epitaxial layer stacked in this order on the semiconductor substrate and having no difference in refractive index of a real part from the semiconductor substrate, and by using said Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, measuring an interferogram about said measurement target and measuring an interferogram about said semiconductor substrate to obtain a reference interferogram;
(b) calculating a reflection spectrum about said measurement target and a reference reflection spectrum by Fourier-transforming said interferogram about said measurement target and said reference interferogram;
(c) calculating a reflection interference pattern by dividing the intensity of said reflection spectrum about said measurement target by the intensity of said reference reflection spectrum; and
(d) fitting a numerically calculated reflection interference pattern to said reflection interference pattern, the numerically calculated reflection interference pattern being obtained by numerical calculation based on the structure of said measurement target, wherein in said step (d),
the thickness of said first epitaxial layer is used as a fitting parameter so as to prevent shift between an interference waveform of said reflection interference pattern containing distortion appearing in a wave number range near an abnormal dispersion range of a refractive index caused by phonon absorption and an interference waveform of said numerically calculated reflection interference pattern in the same wave number range, and
the thickness of said first epitaxial layer determined during the fitting of said numerically calculated reflection interference pattern is defined as an actually measured value of the thickness of said first epitaxial layer.

2. The film thickness measurement method according to claim 1 , wherein in said step (d), calculation of said numerically calculated reflection interference pattern uses a formula devised by adding a phase shift Δφ corresponding to distortion of said interference waveform containing said distortion to a formula indicating a phase difference generated by a difference between an optical path of infrared light reflecting off a surface of said second epitaxial layer and an optical path of infrared light reflecting off an interface between said first epitaxial layer and said semiconductor substrate.

3. The film thickness measurement method according to claim 2 , wherein
said phase shift Δφ is defined by the following formula (1)

Δϕ
=

tan

-
1

(

k
·

n
b

·

k
b

(

n
epi
2

-

n
sub
2

-

k
sub
2

)

·

d
b

/
λ

)

(
1
)

where
n b is the refractive index of a real part of said first epitaxial layer,
k b is the extinction coefficient of said first epitaxial layer,
d b is the thickness of said first epitaxial layer,
n epi is the refractive index of a real part of said second epitaxial layer,
n sub is the refractive index of a real part of said semiconductor substrate,
k sub is the extinction coefficient of said semiconductor substrate,
k is a factor to adjust the effect of the refractive index of a real part of said first epitaxial layer, and
λ is the wavelength of an incident light flux.

Assignees

• Hattori Ryo
• Hamano Kenichi
• Mitsubishi Electric Corp

Inventors

• Hattori Ryo
• Hamano Kenichi

Classifications

• G01B9/02044

  Imaging in the frequency domain, e.g. by using a spectrometer · CPC title

• G01B11/0625 Primary

  with measurement of absorption or reflection · CPC title

• G01B11/06 Primary

  for measuring thickness {; e.g. of sheet material (thickness measurement by thermal means G01B21/085)} · CPC title

• G01B9/02084

  Processing in the Fourier or frequency domain when not imaged in the frequency domain · CPC title