Atom Probe Tomography for 3D-dopant analysis in FinFET devices

As the nano scale device performance depends on the detailed engineering of the dopant distribution, advanced doping processes are required. Progressing towards 3D-structures like FinFETs, studying the dopant gate overlap and conformality of doping calls for metrology with 3D-resolution and the ability to confine the analyzed volume to a small 3D-structure. We demonstrate that through an appropriate methodology this is feasible using Atom Probe Tomography (APT). We extract the 3D-dopant profile and important parameters such as gate overlap and profile steepness, from transistor formed with plasma doping processes. Analyzing samples with different doping processes, the APT results are entirely consistent with device performances (I_off vs. I_on).