X-ray scattering from silicon surfaces: a useful tool for quality control

The semiconductor industry started to conquer the nm-scale in process technology to create the next generation of microsized integrated circuits. With the down-scaling of semiconductor structures, surfaces and interfaces need precise control to achieve high yielding integrated circuits. For roughness determination of high quality surfaces and thickness control of ultra-thin layers, X-ray scattering proves to be an innovative tool. We demonstrate that specular and diffuse X-ray scattering from a silicon surface with a thin thermal oxide allows the precise determination of real structure parameters such as roughness, bulk density, oxide thickness, lateral correlation length and fractal dimension.