In Situ Thickness Measurements of a Silicon Wafer with a Deposited Thin Layer Using Multi-Reflected Terahertz Electromagnetic Waves Through Quartz Chamber Window

Abstract

Accurate and non-destructive measurement of thin layer thickness is critical for ensuring the quality and performance of microelectronic devices. In this study, terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS) was used to measure the combined thickness of a silicon wafer and its deposited thin layer without requiring prior knowledge of the individual material properties. The multi-reflected THz signals from the Si wafer were utilized to accurately calculate the actual thickness and optical properties with a 0.19% error. In the reflection measurement, the variation of optical properties was measured according to the thickness of the deposition through the quartz chamber window. To overcome the intrinsic overlapping of the pulse signal through the quartz chamber window, the detection time of unwanted signals was calculated theoretically, and the inspection conditions such as quartz window thickness and distances between the wafer and window were optimized for accurate measurement with THz-TDS. Based on these results, the accuracy of thickness prediction in the thin layer was confirmed with 4.2% of an error.