Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
TEM of semiconductors containing tungsten interconnects is hampered by the problem of tungsten being intrinsically opaque to the electron beam, and at the same time typically being much thicker than the rest of the specimen. This work describes a technique which can predictably and reproducibly thin tungsten to electron transparency using chemical mechanical polishing (CMP). Chemically-assisted ion beam etching (CAIBE) techniques were also investigated, but found to be of little benefit. The key to development and evaluation of these methods was the AFM.