Practical Electron Microscopy and Database

The TEM images in Figure 1209 show that the light doped drain (LDD) on the drain side of the fault pull down transistor (PD2) is partially blocked by a space particle. Note that the TEM sample was stained in a mixture solution of HNO₃, HF and CH₃COOH before TEM observation.

Figure 1209. TEM images of stained junctions: (a) Doping profile of a fault PD2 and a pass PD2, and (b) Zoom-in image of the fault PD2 showing a spacer particle above the LDD doping region. The arrow in red points to the un-etched junction corner, indicating LDD missing, and the green arrow points to a space particle which blocked implantation. Adapted from [1]

[1] Jie Su, Sanan Liang, Yoyo Wen, May Yang, Linfeng Wu, Chorng Niou, Xianfeng Chen, and Gary Zhao, Electrical Signature Verification of a Lightly Doped Drain Profile Abnormality in a 65 nm Device via Nano-Probing and Junction Stain TEM, ISTFA 2009: Conference Proceedings from the 35th International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis, November 14-19, 2009, San Jose, USA.