Grain size monitor of Al pad is necessary to assure pad quality and electrical performance in IC manufacturing. Currently, the sample is prepared either without pretreatment or with 4.9% HF stain or ion milling before grain size measurement. In this paper, we demonstrate the pretreatment has a pronounced effect on the grain size measurement and the method with ion milling pretreatment shows more reliable results. The mechanism is further discussed.

aluminum, failure analysis, grain size measurement, IC manufacturing, ion milling, sample preparation
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Copyright © 2010 ASM International. All rights reserved.
2010
ASM International
Topics
Specimen preparation Semiconductor wafer fabrication Aluminum
Issue Section:
Poster Session
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