Noncontacting measurement of thickness of thin titanium silicide films using spectroscopic ellipsometry

Spectroscopic ellipsometry has gained increasing attention in semiconductor process control because the technique is nondestructive and noncontacting. This paper demonstrates the capability of spectroscopic ellipsometer to measure the thickness of conducting thin films of titanium silicide. Unlike cross section TEM measurements, this technique does not involve elaborate process of sample preparation. This technique does not require calibration and is used to determine thickness of silicide films from few tens of angstrom up to tens of nanometer. The thickness of titanium silicide film measured at a single point, using spectroscopic ellipsometry and TEM analysis differs by only 4 per cent.