Patent ID: 11921063
Assignee: APPLIED MATERIALS ISRAEL LTD.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 11:
12. A computerized method of measuring a lateral recess in a semiconductor specimen, the semiconductor specimen comprising a stack of a first type of one or more first layers and a second type of one or more second layers deposited alternately on each other, the second layers being at least partially etched, thereby forming a lateral recess between each given second layer and two first layers adjacent thereto, the method performed by a processing and memory circuitry (PMC) and comprising:
obtaining a first image acquired by collecting secondary electrons (SE) emitted from a surface of the specimen, and a second image acquired by collecting backscattered electrons (BSE) scattered from an interior region of the specimen between the surface and a target second layer, wherein the semiconductor specimen is scanned using an electron beam with a landing energy specifically selected to penetrate to a predefined depth corresponding to the target second layer, and wherein the first image is informative of a surface profile of the specimen, and the second image is informative of an interior structure of the interior region;
generating a first gray level (GL) waveform informative of GL intensity distribution of the first image, and a second GL waveform informative of GL intensity distribution of the second image;
estimating a first width of the first layers based on the first GL waveform and a second width with respect to at least the target second layer based on the second GL; and
measuring a lateral recess with respect to the target second layer based on the first width and the second width.