Method of determining the doping concentration across a surface of a semiconductor material

• US 6,407,558 B2
• Filed: 12/15/2000
• Issued: 06/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
• Inventors: Shabde, Sunil N., Liu, Yowjuang William, Tsui, Ting Yiu
• Primary Examiner(s): KARLSEN, ERNEST F
• Application Number:
  US09/738,475
• Publication Number:
  US 20010011895A1
• Time in Patent Office: 550 Days
• Field of Search: 324/750, 324/765, 324/766, 324/767, 324/719, 731/05, 250/306, 250/307
• US Class Current: 324/754.21
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 22/14 for electrical parameters, e.g. resistance, deep-levels, CV, diffusions by electrical means
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 977/854 Semiconductor sample

Abstract

A method (100) of determining a doping concentration of a semiconductor material (101) includes the steps of moving carriers (102) in the material, wherein a number of carriers is a function of the doping concentration of the material (101). The carriers are deflected (130) toward a surface (110) of the material (101) and an accumulated charge profile on the surface of the material, due to the deflected carriers, is detected (140) and used to calculate (180) the doping concentration across a surface (110) of the material (101).

Claims

1. A system for determining a doping concentration uniformity of a semiconductor wafer, comprising:

a stage accommodating a wafer to be evaluated;

an atomic force microscope system operatively coupled to the stage;

magnetic field means associated with the stage for subjecting the wafer to a magnetic field and deflecting carriers in the wafer to a surface of the wafer, thereby generating an accumulated charge profile; and

a controller operatively coupled to the stage and the atomic force microscope for dictating the detection of the accumulated charge profile on the wafer and controlling a positional relationship between the stage and the atomic force microscope.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the atomic force microscope comprises a microminiature cantilever arm and an atomic force microscope tip for detecting the accumulated charge profile on the wafer.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the atomic force microscope operates in a non-contacting mode and detects the accumulated charge profile by sensing a deflection of the cantilever arm and tip due to electrostatic forces exerted by the charge profile on the tip.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the atomic force microscope further comprises a cantilever arm detector which senses the deflection of the cantilever arm and converts the sensed deflection to a detected charge value.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller saves the detected accumulated charge profile as data in a memory, and uses the data to determine whether the doping concentration of the wafer satisfies a uniformity criteria.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the controller saves the detected accumulated charge profile as data in a memory and uses the data to calculate the doping concentration across the wafer using an algorithm based on the Hall effect.