Impact of three-dimensional lateral current flow on ultrashallow spreading resistance profiles.

The spreading resistance probe (SRP) is a widely used measurement tool for electrical characterization of Si structures. From the measured spreading resistance depth profile, the underlying electrically active dopant profile can be extracted through the application of a series of specific software corrections. In this letter, it is shown that for sub-100 nm deep structures a new type of correction is needed in order to account for the impact of three-dimensional lateral current flow through the conductive surface sublayers located above the actual measurement depth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]