FEI
Company, a leading provider of atomic-scale imaging and analysis systems,
today released its new TrueCrystal Strain Analysis package that can be installed
on a Titan(TM) or Tecnai(TM) scanning/transmission electron microscope (S/TEM)
system. The new, automated strain analysis package allows engineers to achieve
highly accurate measurements in a fraction of the time of existing techniques.
"Silicon strain engineering is an important process innovation in advanced
semiconductor manufacturing; it allows for improved device performance and efficiency
at advanced technology nodes. Currently, only TEM has proven capable of measuring
these induced lattice strains at the required spatial resolution," said
Joseph Race, product marketing manager, Electronics Division at FEI. "TrueCrystal
Strain Analysis is a complete analytical package for the determination of strain
along any line in a crystalline sample, at the nanometer level."
Tony Edwards, vice president and general manager of FEI's Electronics Division,
adds, "FEI's TrueCrystal Strain Analysis package is an example of our corporate
commitment to providing customers with comprehensive, application-specific solutions
that aim to maximize TEM productivity, reduce data acquisition times and lower
overall cost of analysis."
TrueCrystal leverages a combination of nano-beam diffraction (NBD) in the TEM,
and a powerful off-line data analysis package, to quickly and easily generate
the high-quality data required for advanced strained silicon process development.
The NBD technique is not subject to the limitations observed in more traditional
methods, such as high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) and convergent beam electron diffraction
(CBED). The on-line software component works within the microscope user interface,
and the straightforward line-scan workflow will be familiar to anyone who has
undertaken chemical analysis on a TEM. The off-line software component allows
for strain analysis of each individual diffraction peak of the acquired diffraction
patterns. The resulting data is then used to automatically generate a plot of
the strain profile across the acquired line scan. From experiment, through final
data reduction, to presentation of results, the TrueCrystal Strain Analysis
package combined with a Titan or Tecnai TEM will allow rapid, accurate strain
profile determination in a broad range of samples.