Small angle x-ray scattering metrology for sidewall angle and cross section of nanometer scale line gratings

High-volume fabrication of nanostructures requires nondestructive metrologies capable of measuring not only the pattern size but also the pattern shape profile. Measurement tool requirements will become more stringent as the feature size approaches 50 nm and tolerances of pattern shape will reach a few nanometers. A small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) based technique has been demonstrated to have the capability of characterizing the average pitch size and pattern width to subnanometer precision. In this study, we report a simple, modeling-free protocol to extract cross-section information such as the average sidewall angle and the pattern height of line grating patterns from the SAXS data. Diffraction peak intensities and reciprocal space positions are measured while the sample is rotated around the axis perpendicular to the grating direction. Linear extrapolations of peak positions in reciprocal space allow a precise determination of both the sidewall angle and the pattern height. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.