Multislice imaging of integrated circuits by precession X-ray ptychography

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• X-ray Imaging

Background:

• Integrated circuits (ICs) are crucial for modern electronics.
• Non-destructive 3D visualization of IC nanostructures is challenging.
• Existing methods often require complex sample preparation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a novel method for nondestructively visualizing multisection nanostructures of integrated circuits.
• To achieve high-resolution 3D imaging of ICs.
• To enable detailed analysis of complex 3D stacked integrated circuits.

Main Methods:

• Utilized X-ray ptychography with a multislice approach.
• Collected tilt-series ptychographic diffraction data at nine incident angles.
• Reconstructed artifact-reduced phase images at approximately 10 nm resolution.

Main Results:

• Successfully visualized nanostructures of a two-layered circuit with a ~1.4 µm gap.
• Achieved a resolution of approximately 10 nm.
• Demonstrated artifact reduction in reconstructed phase images.

Conclusions:

• The proposed X-ray ptychography method enables non-destructive 3D visualization of IC nanostructures.
• The technique offers high resolution and potential for imaging thicker specimens (~100 µm).
• This method is promising for analyzing 3D stacked ICs without laborious sample preparation.