US 11,713,964 B1
Cathodoluminescence focal scans to characterize 3D NAND CH profile
David Goldovsky, Dolev (IL); Ido Almog, Rehovot (IL); and Ronny Barnea, Rehovot (IL)
Assigned to Applied Materials Israel Ltd., Rehovot (IL)
Filed by Applied Materials Israel Ltd., Rehovot (IL)
Filed on Jan. 12, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/574,055.
Int. Cl. G01B 15/04 (2006.01); H01J 37/285 (2006.01); H01J 37/244 (2006.01); H01J 37/28 (2006.01)
CPC G01B 15/04 (2013.01) [H01J 37/244 (2013.01); H01J 37/28 (2013.01); H01J 37/285 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A system for profiling holes in non-opaque samples, the system comprising:
an electron beam (e-beam) source configured to project an e-beam into an inspection hole in a sample, such that a wall of the inspection hole is impinged on and a localized electron cloud is produced inside a bulk of the sample;
a light sensing infrastructure comprising and optical module and an light sensing module, the optical module configured to manipulate cathodoluminescent light generated by the electron cloud so as to allow obtaining from the transmitted light a probed depth d at which the wall of the inspection hole was impinged by the e-beam, and the light sensing module configured to obtain a measured signal of the transmitted light; and
a computational module configured to analyze the measured signal to obtain the probed depth d;
wherein a lateral offset, and/or orientation, of the e-beam is controllable, so as to allow generating localized electron clouds at each of a plurality of depths inside the sample, and thereby obtain information at least about a two-dimensional geometry of the inspection hole.