Tabletop extreme ultraviolet reflectometer for quantitative nanoscale reflectometry, scatterometry, and imaging.

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Coherent extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) light enables high-resolution, element-specific imaging of nanostructures.
• Advanced metrology is essential for characterizing complex nanoscale materials and devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a multi-modal tabletop EUV imaging reflectometer for high-fidelity nanostructure metrology.
• To demonstrate quantitative, non-destructive measurement of nanostructure geometry and composition.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing a tabletop EUV imaging reflectometer with three distinct measurement modes: intensity reflectometry, scatterometry, and imaging reflectometry.
• Probing nanostructures with high spatial resolution and elemental specificity.

Main Results:

• Quantitative and non-destructive measurement of nanostructure geometry and composition with sub-nanometer precision.
• Determination of parameters including surface/line edge roughness, density, linewidth, profile, and depth-resolved composition.
• Demonstrated capability over a field of view of tens of square microns.

Conclusions:

• The developed EUV reflectometer provides a powerful tool for advanced nanostructure characterization.
• The system's multi-modal approach addresses diverse metrology challenges in semiconductor and materials science.
• EUV metrology is highly applicable to a broad spectrum of scientific and industrial challenges.