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G. Pepponi, D. Giubertoni, M. Bersani, F. Meirer, D. Ingerle, G. Steinhauser, C. Streli, P. Hoenicke, B. Beckhoff:
"Grazing incidence x-ray fluorescence and secondary ion mass spectrometry combined approach for the characterization of ultrashallow arsenic distribution in silicon";
Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, 28 (2010), C1C59 - C1C64.

Dopant depth profiling and dose determination are essential for ultrashallow junction technology
development. However they pose a challenge to the widely used dynamic secondary ion mass
spectroscopy SIMS technique that suffers uncertainties due to an initial transient width comparable
to the dopant depth distribution. In this work the authors report on the application of grazing
incidence x-ray fluorescence GIXRF for arsenic in silicon dose and profile determination and its
combination with SIMS in order to try to overcome the limitations of the latter in the topmost few
nanometers. A polynomial variation of the sputtering rate is supposed in the first sputtering stage of
the SIMS analysis and the parameters that regulate the magnitude of such correction are determined
by a least square fitting of the angle dependent fluorescence signal. The total retained fluence was
also measured by instrumental neutron activation analysis and synchrotron radiation soft x-ray
GIXRF. The comparison among the total retained fluence determinations shows a good agreement
among the techniques. Furthermore, from this first set of measurements it was clearly shown that the
GIXRF profile correction is very sensitive to the SIMS profile in the very first nanometers.
Therefore if matrix effects are present in the SIMS analysis beside the sputtering rate change, the
tested sputtering rate correction can produce nonreliable profiles. © 2010 American Vacuum
Society. DOI: 10.1116/1.3292647

http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.329264

http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_186015.pdf