Resolution of non-destructive imaging by controlled acceleration voltage in scanning electron microscopy

Abstract

A new method of non-destructive sub-surface interfacial characterisation has been developed recently, which can be useful for quality assurance of a buried interface in nanoelectronic devices, such as magnetic random access memory. Since the cell size of these devices have been reducing their sizes, it is important to evaluate the resolution of the non-destructive imaging. A sub nanometric layer of different materials such as W and Pt was grown underneath a capping layer with controlled thickness for the evaluation of their sizes in this study. This provides systematic experimental data to show that the technique is capable to resolve down to approximately 2 nm in the plane, which is sufficient for the device imaging.