A technique for preparation of a pillar shaped sample and its multi-directional observation of the sample using a focused ion beam (FIB) / scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) system has been developed. The system employs an FIB/STEM compatible sample rotation holder with a specially designed rotation mechanism, which allows the sample to be rotated 360 degrees [1-3]. This technique was used for the three dimensional (3D) elemental mapping of a contact plug of a Si device in 90 nm technology. A specimen containing a contact plug was shaped to a pillar sample with a cross section of 200 nm x 200 nm and a 5 um length. Elemental analysis was performed with a 200 kV HD-2300 STEM equipped with the EDAX genesis Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) system. Spectrum imaging combined with multivariate statistical analysis (MSA) [4, 5] was used to enhance the weak X-ray signals of the doped area, which contain a low concentration of As-K. The distributions of elements, especially the dopant As, were successfully enhanced by MSA. The elemental maps were reconstructed from the maps.

In the field of semiconductor development and failure analysis, metrology of layers such as gate oxide layer is one of the important analysis due to determine semiconductor itself characteristics. The number of requirements of metrology is increasing by using both scanning and transmission electron microscopy. High accurate metrology depends on accuracy of magnification of electron microscope. We developed accurate magnification calibration for scanning transmission microscope. This method is carried out by using micro scale specimen and silicon single crystal lattice fringe images. We achieved absolute magnification error of less than 2% for all magnification. This microscope provides high accuracy metrology for semiconductor device. We describe an automatic magnification calibration function for the high magnification range required to accurately measure features from a few to tens of nm in size.