System and method for performing nano beam diffraction analysis

1. A system for performing nano beam diffraction (NBD) analysis, comprising:

a focused ion beam (FIB) device for preparing a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample;

a broad beam ion mill for milling the TEM sample to remove a surface portion of the TEM sample; and

a strain analyzer for performing NBD analysis on the milled TEM sample to acquire diffraction data.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the milling of the TEM sample exposes an underlying surface of the TEM sample, and the strain analyzer uses a TEM camera image resolution of at least 4000×4000 pixels to acquire the diffraction data on the underlying surface.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the surface portion removed by the broad beam ion mill comprises a portion of the surface of the TEM sample which has been damaged by the FIB device.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the TEM sample comprises a parallel-sided sample, and the broad beam ion mill removes a surface portion from two parallel sides of the parallel-sided sample.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the removed surface portion comprises a thickness in a range from 1 nm to 45 nm.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the surface portion comprises at least 10% of a thickness of the TEM sample.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the diffraction data comprises a sensitivity which is less than 0.1%.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the diffraction data comprises strain measurement data.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the TEM sample is extracted from a semiconductor structure.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the semiconductor structure comprises one of a semiconductor wafer, a fin field effect transistor (finFET) and a vertical field effect transistor (vFET).

11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the broad beam ion mill is operated at a current in a range from 120 μA to 150 μA and a voltage in a range from 500 eV to 900 eV.

12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the broad beam ion mill utilizes an argon ion beam having a size in a range from 0.5 μm to 1.5 μm.

13. A method of performing nano beam diffraction (NBD) analysis, comprising:

preparing a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample;

milling the TEM sample to remove a surface portion of the TEM sample; and

performing NBD analysis on the milled TEM sample to acquire diffraction data.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the milling of the TEM sample exposes an underlying surface of the TEM sample, and a strain analyzer uses a TEM camera image resolution of at least 4000×4000 pixels to acquire the diffraction data on the underlying surface.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the preparing of the TEM sample is performed by using a focused ion beam (FIB) device, the milling of the TEM sample is performed by using a broad beam ion mill, and the surface portion comprises a portion of the surface of the TEM sample which has been damaged by the FIB device.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the milling of the TEM sample is performed by a broad beam ion mill operated at a current in a range from 120 μA to 150μ and a voltage in a range from 500 eV to 900 eV.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the broad beam ion mill utilizes an argon ion beam having a size in a range from 0.5 μm to 1.5 μm.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the TEM sample comprises a parallel-sided sample, and the broad beam ion mill removes a surface portion from two parallel sides of the parallel-sided sample.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the removed surface portion comprises a thickness in a range from 1 nm to 45 nm.

20. The method of claim 13 , wherein the surface portion comprises at least 10% of a thickness of the TEM sample.

21. The method of claim 13 , wherein the diffraction data comprises a sensitivity which is less than 0.1%.

22. The method of claim 13 , wherein the diffraction data comprises strain measurement data.

23. A system for performing nano beam diffraction (NBD) analysis, comprising:

a focused ion beam (FIB) device for preparing a parallel-sided transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample;

a broad beam ion mill for milling the TEM sample to remove a surface portion from two parallel sides of the parallel-sided TEM sample which has been damaged by the FIB device and expose an underlying surface, the removed surface portion comprising a thickness in a range from 1 nm to 45 nm; and

a strain analyzer for performing NBD analysis on the milled TEM sample to acquire diffraction data on the underlying surface, the strain analyzer using a TEM camera image resolution of at least 4000×4000 pixels to acquire the diffraction data, such that the diffraction data comprises a sensitivity which is less than 0.1%.

24. A method of performing nano beam diffraction (NBD) analysis, comprising:

preparing a parallel-sided transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample;

milling the TEM sample to remove a surface portion from two parallel sides of the parallel-sided TEM sample which has been damaged by the preparing of the TEM sample and expose an underlying surface, the surface portion comprising a thickness in a range from 1 nm to 45 nm; and

performing NBD analysis on the milled TEM sample to acquire diffraction data on the underlying surface, by using a TEM camera image resolution of at least 4000×4000 pixels, such that the diffraction data comprises a sensitivity which is less than 0.1%.

25. A method of performing strain analysis, comprising:

performing a first NBD analysis on a milled TEM sample from a strained region of a structure to acquire diffraction data;

performing a second NBD analysis on a milled reference TEM sample from an unstrained region of the structure to acquire reference diffraction data; and

comparing the diffraction data from the first NBD analysis with the reference diffraction data from the second NBD analysis to determine an amount of strain in the milled TEM sample.