New metrologies for annealing of USJs and thin films

New metrologies for process characterization of annealing for dopant activation in CMOS transistors now include 4-point probes with probe spacing on the micron scale as well as non-contact methods using optical excitation of carriers for measurements of sheet resistance, leakage currents and various indications of the effects of carrier recombination at residual defects. In addition, optical methods have been extended to characterize the effects of annealing and film growth on local strain as measured by bow, site flatness and Raman spectroscopy. These new metrologies allow characterization of anneal process variations across whole wafers to the sub-mm scale and beyond for Rapid Process Optimization.