High-resolution imaging ellipsometer

Qiwen Zhan and James R. Leger

We report on a novel imaging ellipsometer using a high-numerical-aperture NA objective lens capable of measuring a two-dimensional ellipsometric signal with high resolution. Two-dimensional ellipsometric imaging is made possible by spatial ltering at the pupil plane of the objective. A RichardsWolf vectorial diffraction model and geometrical optics model are developed to simulate the system. The thickness prole of patterned polymethyl methacrylate is measured for calibration purposes. Our instrument has a sensitivity of 5 and provides spatial resolution of approximately 0.5 m with 632.8-nm illumination. Its capability of measuring refractive-index variations with high spatial resolution is also demonstrated. 2002 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 050.1960, 070.6110, 080.2740, 120.2130.

1. Introduction

Optical techniques are widely used in thin-lm inspection and metrology applications. Their inherent simplicity and nondestructive nature make optical instruments indispensable to modern research and fabrication. Among these optical techniques, ellipsometry is one of the most powerful surface-sensitive metrology tools. It allows simultaneous determination of lm thickness and refractive indices with astonishing accuracy.1,2 Ellipsometry is essential to many microelectronic fabrication processes, from ultrathin gate dielectrics to complex multilayer structures. However, as the feature sizes of integrated circuits become smaller and smaller, the application of ellipsometry in this area is hampered by the large illumination spot size and slow scanning process of conventional ellipsometry. Thus spatially resolved imaging ellipsometry is desirable for applications in the semiconductor industry. Several approaches have been proposed to increase the spatial resolution of conventional ellipsometry and provide a high-quality ellipsometric image. One approach is to modify a traditional ellipsometer with a microscope objective and a CCD camera in the analyzer arm to achieve higher spatial resolution.

Q. Zhan qzhan@ece.umn.edu and J. R. Leger leger@ece. umn.edu are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, 4-174 EE CSci Building, 200 Union Street Southeast, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455. Received 19 November 2001; revised manuscript received 11 March 2002. 0003-6935 02 224443-08$15.00 0 2002 Optical Society of America

The sample is inclined relative to the optical axis of the imaging device. This leads to distortion in the image plane. If a large eld of view is desired, one must reconstruct the image from a series of measurements by scanning the focal plane,3 or a complex optical system is required to correct for distortion.4 The slant angle between the objective and the sample also limits the highest numerical aperture NA that can be used in this kind of system to avoid collision between objective and sample, which in turn limits the achievable resolution. Another approach is termed back focal-plane ellipsometry.5,6 This approach uses a high-NA lens for illumination. The reected light polarization altered by the reection from the sample surface is analyzed at the back focal plane of the high-NA lens. Back focal-plane ellipsometry has a high spatial resolution. However, lateral scanning is necessary to form a two-dimensional ellipsometric map of the sample. In this paper we present an imaging ellipsometer using normal high-NA illumination. A pupil plane ltering technique enables an ellipsometric imaging of the sample and eliminates the requirement of one having to scan in the back focal-plane ellipsometry. This imaging ellipsometer is able to characterize the sample with high spatial resolution and form an ellipsometric image of the sample in a parallel fashion. The time necessary for a measurement is limited by the electronics instead of the scanning process. Compared with existing techniques, this imaging ellipsometer is able to perform accurate measurements with higher speed and higher spatial resolution with a simple setup, thereby making the ellipsometer a much more powerful tool for industrial fabrication and scientic research.
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Fig. 1. Diagram of the setup used in the optical model. The transmission axis of the polarizer is aligned with the x direction, and the transmission axis of the analyzer is aligned with the y direction.

In Section 2 we describe the mathematical models that we use to study polarization effects in high-NA systems. Then in Section 3 we present our imaging ellipsometer experimental setup. Experimental results for thickness and refractive-index measurements are shown in Section 4.
2. Polarization Effects in High-Numerical-Aperture Systems

Fig. 2. Vetorial diffraction simulation results of the amplitude and phase of the x and y components of the reected eld at the pupil: a amplitude of the x component, b amplitude of the y component, c phase of the x component, d phase of the y component. A plane-wave illumination with unit amplitude was used in the simulation. The maximum magnitude of the x component in a is approximately 20 times that of the y component in b .

To obtain high spatial resolution and form an image, a high-NA objective lens is used in the imaging ellipsometer setup. The high-NA lens contains more oblique rays to increase the ellipsometric signal. At the same time, the high-NA serves to increase the spatial resolution. Because of the presence of a high-NA objective lens, a linearly polarized incident plane wave is focused to a more complex polarization pattern at the focal plane. This depolarization effect is often of concern in magneto-optic recording and polarization microscopy, where it could reduce the contrast and is generally considered a nuisance.7,8 However, we want to utilize this effect in novel ways to make ellipsometric measurements of the surface in a small region. Hence, rather than a degradation in performance with a reduced spot size as in conventional ellipsometry, the ellipsometric performance of this method improves with spot-size reduction. To explore the measurement methods based on the polarization effects in high-NA systems, a Richards Wolf vectorial diffraction model is used to simulate the optical system.9,10 The optical setup for simulation is illustrated in Fig. 1. A linear polarized beam that is polarized in the x direction is incident on the objective lens and is focused onto the sample. A fast-Fourier-transform algorithm is used to decompose this focused beam into an angular spectrum of plane waves, each plane wave having a specic electric eld vector to indicate its polarization. The extended Fresnel diffraction formula is then used to propagate these plane waves to the sample. The eld distribution of different components at the focal plane can be synthesized from these plane waves. Clearly, the eld is not linearly polarized at the focal
4444 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 41, No. 22 1 August 2002

point. These plane waves are then reected by the sample. The Fresnel reection coefcients are calculated here to determine the electrical vector associated with each plane wave. The reected eld can be synthesized from these plane waves. Similar procedures are used to propagate this reected eld back to the lens exit pupil. One example of this simulation is shown in Fig. 2. From the x- and y-component distribution at the exit pupil, the state of polarization and its relation to the characteristics of the sample can be calculated. Because of the symmetry of the phase distribution, the interference information between the x and y component will be washed out if the whole aperture is integrated. A proper spatial lter must be used to break the symmetry to extract the information. The reason for use of such a spatial lter is explained in detail below. In our current simulation and experiment, a lter aperture mask blocks the II and IV quadrants of the objective lens exit pupil see Fig. 1 . Our simulation shows that the polarization effect described above can be utilized to obtain information about the sample by use of a spatial lter at the back focal plane and by rotation of a quarterwave plate in the analyzer beam. The two intensities that correspond to two orthogonal angular positions of the 4 plate are calculated. In our simulations, the two angular positions of the quarter-wave plate are 4 and 4 with respect to the x axis. Figure 3 shows the two ellipsometric intensity signals as a function of lm thickness h for a thin lm with a refractive index of 1.47 SiO2 on a substrate with a complex refractive index of 3.88 0.019j silicon .

Fig. 5. Illustration of the coordinates transform. This effect is a pure geometry effect that is due to the denition of the s and p direction before and after reection.

Fig. 3. Simulation results for the two intensities, where h is the thickness of the sample, is the wavelength inside of the sample, I1 is the intensity on the detector with quarter-wave plate 4 with respect to the x axis, and I2 is the intensity on the detector with quarter-wave plate 4 with respect to the x axis.

coordinate system into x1 oy1 , in which ox1 is parallel to the incident plane formed by lines B, F and D, F, and oy1 is perpendicular to the incident plane. After being bent by the lens, ox1 is transformed into the TM eigendirection to the sample, and oy1 becomes the TE eigendirection. An operation L , 1 cos 1 0 0 1

To have a more intuitive description of the setup, a geometrical optics model is also developed. Referring to Fig. 4, op denotes the transmission axis of the polarizer, oa denotes the transmission axis of the analyzer, and oc is the c axis of the 4 plate. A ray passes through the polarizer and enters the pupil at point B with coordinates of , . The Jones matrix for the polarizer is 1 0 R P , 0 0 where P is the angle between o, x and o, p in Fig. 4 and TP R P R P cos P sin P sin P cos P

is taken to conserve power because of a crosssectional change after bending by the lens. This ray is then reected by the sample with a Jones matrix TS , rp 0 0 rs

where rs and rp are the reection coefcients for TEand TM-polarized light, respectively. An inverse operation L
1

cos

1 0 0 1

is a rotation operation with rotation angle P. Another rotation operation R is taken to rotate the

is necessary as the ray passes through the lens for the second time. Because of the convention of one having to choose the TE and TM directions before and after reection Fig. 5 , there is a purely geometric effect when the coordinate is altered from the x1 oy1 system to the x2 oy2 system. An operation R 2 M, where M 0 1 1 0

is a reection operation, can be used to transform the alternate coordinate system back to the xed xoy coordinate system. Then this ray passes through the quarter-wave plate, whose Jones matrix is TC
Fig. 4. Diagram of the coordinate system used in the geometrical optics model, where xop P, xoa A, and xoc C with op and oa as the transmission axis of the polarizer and analyzer and oc as the fast axis of the quarter-wave plate.

1 0

0 R C , j

where C is the angle between the fast axis of the quarter-wave plate and the x axis. Finally this ray
1 August 2002 Vol. 41, No. 22 APPLIED OPTICS 4445

arrives at the detector after passing the analyzer with a Jones matrix of TA R 1 0 A R A , 0 0

when C P ,

4, and E ,
2

dS 1 r s 2 sin2 2 sin
p,s

1 r p 2 cos2 2 1 r p r s sin 2 2

and A is the angle between the transmission axis of the analyzer and the x axis. The electric vector of this ray at the detector can be expressed as E , where Ei E ix E iy E ox E oy T total E ix , E iy (1)

dS

(7)

is the electric vector of the incident ray and Ttotal is the Jones matrix of the total optical path, which can be expressed as T total TA TC R ML
1

2 , TS , L , R T P. (2)

when C 4. From Eqs. 6 and 7 , it is clear that the information on the phase delay between the TE and the TM components is in the interference term the last term in each expression . It is also clear that, if the whole aperture is used, the integral of sin 2 over 0, 2 will eliminate the phase information. This is why a spatial lter is required to break the azimuth symmetry and extract the phase delay. This conclusion is consistent with the simulation by the Richards Wolf model. One simple choice is an aperture that blocks two opposite quadrants of the lens pupil. With this mask, two power signals can be obtained when we integrate Eqs. 6 and 7 over the aperture. For C 4, I1 K2
0
max

After a tedious derivation, we can show that T total T 11 T 12 , 0 0 (3)

f 2 sin d

1 r p 2 cos2 2 sin
p,s

where T11 and T12 are expressed as T 11 cos A sin C sin C sin P T 12 cos A sin C sin C sin P C cos C r p cos P rs j sin A cos P, C cos C r p cos P rs j sin A sin P. rp j sin A C cos C C C For C (5) I2 rs rp j sin A C cos C C C rs (4)

1 r s 2 sin2 2 K2 2
max

1 r p r s sin 2 2 d
max

f 2 sin d K2 2

r p 2 cos2 f 2 sin d

cos P

cos A

r s 2 sin2

d 4, K2
0

r p r s sin 2

sin

p,s

I0

I int.

(8)

sin P

cos A

max

Choosing A 2, P 0, i.e., polarizer and analyzer are at crossed positions and Ei 1 , 0

f 2 sin d

1 rp 2 cos2 2 sin
p, s

1 r s 2 sin2 2 K2 2
max

1 r p r s sin 2 2 d
max

it can be shown that the contribution from a ray that enters at , is P , E ,

2

f 2 sin d K2 2

r p 2 cos2 f 2 sin d

dS 1 r s 2 sin2 2 sin
p,s

r s 2 sin2

1 r p 2 cos2 2 1 r p r s sin 2 2
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d (6) I0 I int,

r p r s sin 2

sin

p,s

dS

(9)

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Fig. 6. Diagram of the calculation of the optimal spatial lter. Fig. 7. Diagram of the imaging ellipsometer experimental setup.

where K is a constant, denotes the azimuth integration interval of 0, 2 , 3 2 , max corresponds to the NA, and Iint is the interference term. This I1 and I2 will be used as the ellipsometric parameters in the measurement instead of the conventional , pair. It is easy to show that this pupil plane spatial-ltering technique is equivalent to a quad detection used in some back focal-plane ellipsometry techniques.11 However, this pupil plane spatial ltering allows us to perform ellipsometric measurements in parallel to produce a twodimensional image without scanning. When used in the imaging mode, the nonuniformity of the light source in the transverse dimension needs to be considered. A standard sample such as a mirror can be used to calibrate out the nonuniformity. In this paper, we use the ratio between I1 and I2 as the signal to eliminate this nonuniformity because of its simplicity. As shown in Eqs. 8 and 9 , the information is contained in the interference term Iint. Noting that rp and rs are independent of , the expression of Iint can be separated into two parts: I int K2 2 R
max

3. Imaging Ellipsometer Experimental Setup

f 2 sin

r p r s sin

p,s

sin 2 d

The experimental setup of our imaging ellipsometer is shown in Fig. 7. This setup uses a ber bundle illuminator Dolan-Jenner Fiber-Lite MI-150 as an extended source to form an image of the object and permit analysis of each sample point in parallel. Because individual points from the extended source in the eld of view of the collimating lens lens 1 subtend small angles with respect to the optical axis, we can analyze the polarization effect caused by each image point in the same way as an on-axis point. A diffuser is placed against the ber bundle to homogenize the light. A Corion 10-nm interference bandpass ler with a central wavelength at 633 nm is placed after the diffuser. Lens 1 and lens 2 are used to collimate each point of the source and project the quadrant spatial lter to the pupil plane of the objective. A Nikon CF Plan EPI objective 50 and a NA of 0.8 with 4-mm focal length is used to focus the linearly polarized incident light onto the sample. After reection from the sample, the light is collected by the objective and steered to the analyzer arm by the beam splitter. In general, the reectivity of the beam splitter for s- and p-polarized light is different. This difference introduces an extra ellipsometric ro-

max

sin 2 d ,

(10)

where R max is independent of . From Eq. 10 we can design an optimal spatial lter that gives rise to the largest interference signal. Consider the integral
max

sin 2 d
0

cos 2 2

max

(11)

where max is the maximum opening angle of the spatial lter see Fig. 6 . Equation 11 is maximized when an optimal max is chosen to be 2, which is the spatial aperture we used in the RichardsWolf model.

Fig. 8. Illustration of the patterned PMMA sample. 1 August 2002 Vol. 41, No. 22 APPLIED OPTICS 4447

Fig. 9. Experimental results of the thickness measurement. after we converted the ellipsometric signal into thickness.

a Two-dimensional ellipsometric image and b line scan of image in a

tation to the signal, thus it has to be included in the model to generate an accurate look-up table. For the beam splitter that we used, rp rs 0.6378 0.1125j is determined experimentally and included in our optical model. A zero-order polymer 4 plate with 9 angular acceptance is used in the analyzer arm. An analyzer is placed after the 4 plate and aligned at a crossed position with respect to the polarizer. Lens 3 is a 40-cm doublet that images the object onto the CCD camera. The magnication of the imaging system is 100. A PULNiX TM-7CN CCD camera is used to capture the image. The pixel size of the camera is 9.8 m. This pixel size corresponds to approximately 0.1 m on the object plane. The resolution of the system is 1.22 2NA of approximately 0.48 m; thus each resolution spot is oversampled by a factor of 5. A 10-bit analog-to-digital converter Spiricon is used as an interface between the camera and the computer. The image size is 512 480, which approximately corresponds to an area of 51.2 m by 48 m on the sample. To lower the temporal noise, 64 frames are averaged. Two images for the two orthogonal orientations of the 4 plate are captured for processing. A ratio of the two images is then calculated to normalize the nonuniformity of the source. Finally, we convert the ratio signal from each point into thickness by utilizing a theoretical curve generated according to the optical model presented in Section 2.
4. Experimental Results and Discussions A. Poly Methyl Methacrylate Grating Prole Measurement

To test the imaging ellipsometer, a 50-nm-deep poly methyl methacrylate PMMA grating was fabricated on top of a 100-nm SiO2 thin lm with a silicon wafer as a substrate Fig. 8 . Ellipsometric images were generated at two different 4 plate angles 4 and 4 , and the ratio signal was displayed. The results see Fig. 9 clearly show the existence of distinct polarization effects for different
4448 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 41, No. 22 1 August 2002

regions. Figure 9 a clearly shows the twodimensional imaging ellipsometric result of the PMMA grating. A cross section of the image is shown in Fig. 9 b . The mesa corresponds to a structure of PMMA 50 nm SiO2 100 nm silicon and the trench corresponds to a structure of SiO2 100 nm silicon. From the ellipsometric signal, we found the thickness of each region by looking up the measured ratio signal in a theoretical look-up table generated by the RichardsWolf model. The refractive index of PMMA and SiO2 was assumed to be 1.47, and the complex refractive index of the silicon substrate was chosen to be 3.88 0.019j in the optical model. From the signal, the sensitivity can be determined to be approximately 5 . The measured thickness is within 5% of the actual thickness. Several factors could contribute to the errors to the absolute measurement. One possible error source is the assumed index of refraction. The imaging ellipsometer should be able to measure the thickness and refractive index by use of the two independent intensity measurements obtained at orthogonal 4 plate angles. However, we chose to use the ratio of these two intensities as the analysis parameter to eliminate the effect of source nonuniformities and sample reectance variations. From this ratio signal, only one parameter can be measured given the knowledge of the other parameter. Thus, to model the structure more accurately, the exact refractive index of each layer needs to be known. Other possible factors that could cause the deviation of experimental data are the residual birefringence of the lens and inaccuracies in the modeling of the beam splitter. The nonuniformity of illumination at the pupil gives another possible source of error. However, a calibration procedure can be utilized to compensate the last three factors and thus improve the measurement accuracy.
B. Response to Refractive-Index Variation

A sample with index of refraction variation was also measured with our imaging ellipsometer. We pre-

Fig. 10. Cross section of the sample for index of refraction measurement.

pared the sample by depositing 6 m of SiO2 n 1.47 on a silicon substrate 3.88 0.019j . Then we polished this sample from the side and deposited 0.115 m of Si3N4 n 1.932 on the polished side. We determined the refractive index and thickness of the Si3N4 layer with a conventional ellipsometer by measuring a reference silicon substrate placed beside

the sample during the deposition. The cross section of this sample is illustrated in Fig. 10. The ellipsometric image and its cross section obtained by our imaging ellipsometer are shown in Fig. 11. The polarization contrast obtained in this case comes from the index of refraction variations beneath the Si3N4 layer. From the result, it is clear that the response for different refractive-index regions is distinct. However, we were not able to accurately determine the index of refraction from the ratio signal. This is due to the fact that measured properties of the Si3N4 on the reference silicon wafer do not represent the true properties of the Si3N4 on the sample. To estimate the accuracy of the index of refraction measurement, we measured the index of refraction of the Si3N4 on the reference sample using the imaging ellipsometer. Given the thickness 0.115 m , the index of refraction was determined to be 1.992, compared with 1.932 measured by a conventional ellipsometer. The imperfection of polish and the low reectivity in this experiment are the major sources of noise. From Fig. 11 b , the noise level of the ratio signal is determined to be 0.005. On the basis of this noise level, the sensitivity to the index of refraction is estimated to be 0.03. With a brighter source and better polish, a sensitivity much better than 0.01 is expected.
5. Conclusion

We have demonstrated an imaging ellipsometer technique that can measure the thickness and the refractive index of thin lms and form highresolution images at the same time. Both a RichardsWolf method and a geometrical optics model were developed to simulate this imaging ellipsometer. The thickness prole of patterned PMMA and an index prole of a SiO2 silicon sample were measured to prove the feasibility. The thickness measurement showed a sensitivity of 5 and provided a spatial resolution of approximately 0.5 m. An index sensitivity of 0.03 was obtained in the index of refraction measurement with the same spatial resolution. Currently, only one parameter, either thickness or refractive index, is determined. However, the technique can be extended in a straightforward manner to measure multiple parameters simultaneously. This technique may nd wide applications in microelectronic fabrication, the photonics industry, biosensing, material sciences, and other thin-lm-related industries and scientic disciplines. This project is funded by CyberOptics Inc. The authors are thankful for their support.
References
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Fig. 11. Experimental results for the index of refraction measurement. a Two-dimensional ellipsometric image and b line scan of the image in a .

4. G. Jin, R. Jansson, and H. Arwin, Imaging ellipsometry revisited: development for visualization of thin transparent layers on silicon substrates, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 67, 29302935 1996 . 5. N. Gold, D. L. Willenborg, J. Opsal, and A. Rosencwaig, High resolution ellipsometric apparatus, U.S. patent 5,042,951 2 August 1991 . 6. C. W. See, M. G. Somekh, and R. D. Holmes, Scanning optical microellipsometer for pure surface proling, Appl. Opt. 35, 6663 6668 1996 . 7. M. Mansuripur, The Physical Principles of Magneto-Optical Recording Cambridge U. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1995 . 8. Y.-C. Hsieh and M. Mansuripur, Image contrast in polarization microscopy of magneto-optical disk data-storage media

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