Space product assurance. Design, selection, procurement and use of die form monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs)

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Circuits ◽  
Microwave Integrated Circuits ◽  
Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits ◽  
Design Selection ◽  
Space Product

Using the secondary electrons (SE) of SEM with NIST‘s MONSEL-II program to obtain improved linewidth measurements and slope angles of line edges on a MMIC GaAs device

1996 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 944-945
Author(s):  
Richard G. Sartore
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Circuits ◽  
Plasma Etching ◽  
Microwave Integrated Circuits ◽  
Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits ◽  
Thick Gold ◽  
Gaas Devices ◽  
Source Distance ◽  
Margin Of Error ◽  
Dimensional Measurements ◽  
Barrier Metal

In the evaluation of GaAs devices from the MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits) program for Army applications, there was a requirement to obtain accurate linewidth measurements on the nominal 0.5 micrometer gate lengths used to fabricate these devices. Preliminary measurements indicated a significant variation (typically 10 % to 30% but could be more) in the critical dimensional measurements of the gate length, gate to source distance and gate to drain distance. Passivation introduced a margin of error, which was removed by plasma etching. Additionally, the high aspect ratio (4-5) of the thick gold (Au) conductors also introduced measurement difficulties. The final measurements were performed after the thick gold conductor was removed and only the barrier metal remained, which was approximately 250 nanometer thick platinum on GaAs substrate. The thickness was measured using the penetration voltage method. Linescan of the secondary electron signal as it scans across the gate is shown in Figure 1.

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