Mapping the Edge Roughness of Test-Structure Features for Nanometer-Level CD Reference-Materials

The near-term objective of the work reported here is to develop a protocol for rapidly mapping CD and edge roughness from high-resolution SEM images of reference-material features patterned on Single-Crystal CD Reference Material (SCCDRM) chips. The longer term mission is to formulate a metric to enable automated characterization of as-fabricated reference-feature segments for rapid identification of fabrication-process enhancements and, ultimately, to select feature segments for further characterization as standard reference-materials. The selection of results presented here provides a new level of SCCDRM characterization which shows that segments of some SCCDRM features appear to have very useful extended lengths of up to 200 nm of superior CD uniformity.