Hmmmm... weird SEM shots
I just took some FEI Nova SEM shots of the Choi sample... and they're weird. They confirm the damage I saw on the optical microscope, but even weirder are the standing mushroom structures inside the trenches. I think I need to talk to Jay about this.
- Picture #1: This 5k shot shows not only breaks in the lines, but weird fuzzy stuff between the lines as well.
- Picture #2: An 80k closeup shot of the damage.
- Picture #3: Another 80k shot of a different damaged region.
- Picture #4: An 8k shot of a piece of dirt or something on the surface, included just because it's cool.
- Picture #5: Here's a 30k edge shot that shows the lines are only mostly straight, that they vary in thickness, and that there's a weird bump feature at the bottom of most.
- Picture #6: Here's a 120k edge shot with measurements. We still have ~80 nanometers of oxide mask after a six-minute etch, so we can probably go a little deeper. Which is good, since this etch didn't even get a micron down. Notice the disparity in widths of the features.
- Picture #7: And here's a 200k edge shot with more measurements (different region) that shows a little better uniformity, but still lots of the weird standing structures in the trench.
