Patent ID: 7655558
Filing Date: 2010-02-02
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
1. A method for determining one or more characteristics of a partially processed integrated circuit, the method comprising: providing a substrate material, the substrate material being characterized by a substrate thickness and a substrate diameter; forming at least one opening within the substrate material, the opening being characterized by at least an opening characteristic, the opening characteristic being a depth within a portion of the substrate thickness and an opening width, the depth and width being associated with an unknown volume, the opening width being 90 nanometers or less, the opening diameter and the opening depth include an aspect ratio (depth/diameter) of at least 7:1; providing a predetermined amount of fill material; processing the fill material to cause a first portion of the fill material to enter the opening and occupy an entirety of the unknown volume associated with the opening characteristic while a second portion of the fill material remains outside of the unknown volume associated with the opening characteristic; processing the second portion of the fill material using one or more processes to determine a spatial characteristic associated with the unknown volume; wherein the processing the second portion of the fill material using comprises: determining a filling characteristic associate with the second fill material, the filing characteristics comprises an ashing time of the filling material; providing a set of reference data; comparing the filling characteristics with the reference data; determining a spatial characteristic associated with the unknown volume based on the filling characteristics.