In-Situ thickness measurement

methods and Anti Reflection Coatings

By:
Eshaan Gupta
2009PH10716

INTRODUCTION

The thickness of thin lms grown or deposited onto a

substrate are crucial to the performance of the end
product in the semiconductor industry.

Better metrology equipment is needed to increase

yield and lower production time.

In-situ measurement of the thickness of lms would

eliminate post-growth/deposition metrology time for
devices.

Since the thickness is continuously monitored ,

precise control over the lm thickness is gained.

Thin Film Measurement Techniques

Contact
Methods include techniques like Atomic
Force Microscopy , prolometers, etc.

Cannot be used for in-situ

measurement.

NonContact
Methods include gravimetric, eddy
currents and optical methods.

Used extensively for in-situ

measurement.

Quartz Crystal Monitor

(QCM)
QUARTZ
Has piezoelectric properties: develop
an electric potential on the
application of mechanical stress.
Use in crystal oscillator : resonant
frequency of quartz crystal oscillator
changed by mechanically loading it
principle used for very accurate
measurements of very small mass
changes in quartz crystal
microbalance and thin lm thickness
monitors.

Quartz Crystal Monitor

(QCM)
Measures mass per unit area by measuring the change in
frequency of quartz crystal ocillator.
Applying alternating current to the quartz crystal will induce
oscillations. With an alternating current between the
electrodes of a properly cut crystal, a standingshear waveis
generated.
Resonance is disturbed by addition or removal of a small mass
due to lm deposition at the surface of the acoustic resonator.
Q factor ( ratio of frequency and
bandwidth) can be as high as 106 .

Such a narrow resonance leads

to highly stable oscillators and
high accuracy in determination of
resonance frequency.

Quartz Crystal Monitor

(QCM)
QCM exploits this ease and precision for sensing.
Frequency of oscillation dependent on the thickness of the
crystal.
During normal operation , keeping all other influencing
variables constant ; change in thickness correlates directly to
change in frequency.
As mass is deposited on the surface of the crystal, the
thickness increases; consequently the frequency of oscillation
decreases from the initial value.
With some simplifying assumptions, this frequency change
can be quantied and correlated precisely to the mass change
using Sauerbrey's equation.

Quartz Crystal Monitor

(QCM)
Sauerbrey Equation

Assumption : Deposited mass must

be evenly
distributed.

f0Resonant frequency(Hz)
f Frequency change (Hz)
m Mass change (g)
A Piezoelectricallyactive crystal area (Area between
electrodes, cm2)
qDensityof quartz (q= 2.648 g/cm3)
qShear modulusof quartz for AT-cut crystal
(q= 2.947x1011g/cm.s2)

Quartz Crystal Monitor

(QCM)
Note : Sensor is not on
substrate. Can you gure the
disadvantage ?

Quartz Crystal Monitor

(QCM)
Quartz resonators used in QCM ,
metalized with Gold electrodes.

Typical Quartz Sensor

Quartz Crystal Monitor

(QCM)
-DISADVANTAGES
Sensor cannot be placed in front of crystal because then
shadowing will take place. So intensities of material deposited
is not same on both sensor and substrate.
Measures the rate and thickness changes on the sensor
crystal and not the substrates. Therefore, a successful
application of QCM requires a consistent relationship between
the deposition rate on crystal versus rate on substrates.
Life of sensor crystal is material limited meaning it will fail
once a sufficient amount of material has been deposited.

In-Situ Ellipsometry

Principle of ellipsometry
Ellipsometer emits polarized light from its input unit , or light
source, and reflects the light at one of several angles off the
surface of the lm.
The optical properties and thicknesses of the different layers
in the lm will change the polarization of the incident light that
was emitted.
Changed light is reflected and then analyzed by detector and
the analyzer of the ellipsometer.
Using a computer program the measured data for various

In-Situ Ellipsometry
Light- Electromagnetic Wave
Light is an electromagnetic wave that is described by
Maxwells equation for electromagnetic elds. In a nonconducting, non-dispersive medium electric eld is the
electromagnetic plane wave :

In-Situ Ellipsometry
Light- Electromagnetic Wave (contd.)
If the imaginary part (k, or the extinction coefficient) of the
complex index of refraction is nonzero, then the amplitude (the
real part of electric eld vector) changes :
Amplitude changes as
electric eld oscillates !

Because of the negative sign in exponential amplitude

decays as z increases. Implies that as the E-eld travels
through an absorbing medium , it will become weaker.

In-Situ Ellipsometry
Light- Electromagnetic Wave (contd.)
Penetration Depth : Distance the wave travels before it
decays 1/e from its original amplitude.

Important concept in Ellipsometry : many materials exhibit

large extinction coefficients (k) such that a light beam may
only penetrate a few tens of nm or less !
No information can be gained unless the light penetrates it
sufficiently and then is able to reflect back out of the sample.
This is why it is practically impossible to measure the
thickness of films greater than about 50nm thick with
an ellipsometer !

In-Situ Ellipsometry
Polarization
Convention has created two directions when describing the
reflection and transmission of light relative to a surface :
p-polarized lying in the plane of incidence
s-polarized perpendicular to the p-polarized and plane of
incidence.
Electric eld can be dened using the p-direction and the sdirection since they form orthogonal vectors.

Ellipsometry ultimately compares these two components of

the light reflected from the surface, to analyze the properties
of the reflected surface.

In-Situ Ellipsometry
Measurement
The sample lm can be considered as an optical system that
modies the polarization state of the beam of light.
The actual values measured are expressed as psi ssss and
delta
. These values are related to the Fresnel reflection
coefficients
for p- and s- polarized light
respectively.
From the above equation it can be seen that psi and delta
correspond to the amplitude and phase of rho.
By measuring these values and tting a model to it , the
optical properties and thickness can be deduced using a
computer program.

In-Situ Ellipsometry

In-Situ Ellipsometry

In-Situ Ellipsometry

Next slide

In-Situ Ellipsometry

In-Situ Ellipsometry

In-Situ Ellipsometry
ADVANTAGES
Very sensitive for thin lm measurements: derived from
determing the relative phase change of the beam of reflected
polarized light.
Absolute intensity of the reflected light does not have to be
measured. This allows ellipsometric measurements to be more
accurate than simple intensity reflectance measurements.
From the equation
reflectance values

it measures the two

for p- and s- , it provides accurate and producible results unique to

ellipsometers.
Since it measures relative intensity and phase rather than
absolute values, it can be operated in any type of environment .
So not necessary to maintain the ellipsometer in a dust free

In-Situ Ellipsometry
RESTRICTIONS
Incident angles cannot be varied : would require changing the
vacuum chamber ports (on which ellipsometer is mounted)
means that ports have to be bent at varied angles , which is
impossible for xed stainless steel chambers.
Alignment and calibration must be done before the deopsition
,i.e, on substrate. When metal is deposited on the lm , calibration
may give erroneous values that can affect the accuracy of
measurements.

Anti-Reflection Thin Films

INTRODUCTION
When a light wave is incident on a surface , a part of it is
reflected and a part of it is transmitted.
Purpose of AR lms is to minimize the losses due to reflection.

Anti-Reflection Thin Films

Anti Reflection Mechanism : Multi Reflection and Destructive
interference.
Important parameters of the
Refractive index(n)
Thickness (d)
Air

n0

Film

n1

Glass

n2

Adjust these
lm parameters !

Destructive interference

n1 d

Constructive
interference

Anti-Reflection Thin Films

FABRICATION OF THIN FILMS
Physical Vapor Deposition
Need of vacuum
Approaches : (i) Resistive heating
(ii) Electron Beam
Controlling the thickness
Quartz crystal monitoring
Optical methods for thickness
monitoring

Single Layer Anti Reflection

Coating

n1d

n1

n0 n2

Single Layer Anti Reflection

Coating
Results of MgF2 Film

RTheoretical = 1.3%

RExperimental = 0.7%

Single Layer Anti Reflection

Coating
Limitations of the approach :
Not always possible to nd suitable material with
suitable refractive index. (particularly in cases where bulk
medium has low n ).
Works only in a limited bandwidth ( wavelength range).

Multiple Layer AR Coating

If no suitable medium for single layer coating can be found ,
or if anti reflective properties are required for a very broad
wavelength range, more complicated designs with multiple
lms are used.

Reflectivity curve for a numerically optimized anti-reflection coating on a BK7 glass substrate for 1064nm and
532nm. Two layer pairs of TiO2and SiO2are used.

Applications
In solar cells , the deposition of anti reflective coating
makes it possible to improve the conversion efficiency of
solar radiation.
In laser systems the power of the output radiation,
ensuring high laser strength of the materials.
Used by opticians in anti reflection lenses to produce
less glare , which is particularly noticeable while driving
at night and in front of computer screen.

THANK YOU