Wet-chemical etching of atom probe tips for artefact free analyses of nanoscaled semiconductor structures

We introduce an innovative specimen preparation method employing the selectivity of a wet-chemical etching step to improve data quality and success rates in the atom probe analysis of contemporary semiconductor devices. Firstly, on the example of an SiGe fin embedded in SiO₂ we demonstrate how the selective removal of SiO₂ from the final APT specimen significantly improves accuracy and reliability of the reconstructed data. With the oxide removal, we eliminate the origin of shape artefacts, i.e. the formation of a non-hemispherical tip shape, that are typically observed in the reconstructed volume of complex systems. Secondly, using the same approach, we increase success rates to ∼90% for the damage-free, 3D site-specific localization of short (250 nm), vertical Si nanowires at the specimen apex. The impact of the abrupt emitter radius change that is introduced by this specimen preparation method is evaluated as being minor using field evaporation simulation and comparison of different reconstruction schemes. The Ge content within the SiGe fin as well as the 3D boron distribution in the Si NW as resolved by atom probe analysis are in good agreement with TEM/EDS and ToF-SIMS analysis, respectively.