Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
We have developed a novel microwave near-field scanning probe technique fornon-contact measurement of the dielectric constant of low-k films. Thetechnique is non-destructive, noninvasive and can be used on both porous andnon-porous dielectrics without any sample preparation. The probe has afew-micron spot size, which makes the technique well suited for real timelow-k metrology on production wafers. For dielectrics with k<4 theprecision and accuracy are better than 2% and 5%, respectively. Results forboth SOD and CVD low-k films are presented and show excellent correlationwith Hg-probe measurements. Results for k-value mapping on blanket 200mmwafers are presented as well.