Rapid imaging of misfit dislocations in SiGe/Si in cross-section and through oxide layers using electron channeling contrast

Abstract

Electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI) is emerging as a technique for rapid and high-resolution characterization of individual crystalline defects in a scanning electron microscope. However, the application of ECCI to semiconductor materials has been limited to bare samples in plan-view geometry. In this paper, two modalities of this technique are demonstrated with relevance to semiconductor manufacturing and failure analysis: (1) The use of ECCI to reveal misfit dislocation defects along a cleaved cross-section of a SiGe compositionally graded buffer grown on Si and (2) plan-view imaging of misfit dislocations in metamorphic SiGe/Si layers covered by amorphous oxide layers, where the partial loss of contrast due to the oxide layers is quantified and the effect of the beam accelerating voltage is studied. These results demonstrate the power of ECCI in inspecting crystallographic defects non-destructively over large areas, which is highly desirable for substrate quality control in manufacturing of products based on crystalline materials.