Accuracy of analyses of microelectronics nanostructures in atom probe tomography

International audience; \textcopyright 2016 IOP Publishing Ltd. The routine use of atom probe tomography (APT) as a nano-analysis microscope in the semiconductor industry requires the precise evaluation of the metrological parameters of this instrument (spatial accuracy, spatial precision, composition accuracy or composition precision). The spatial accuracy of this microscope is evaluated in this paper in the analysis of planar structures such as high-k metal gate stacks. It is shown both experimentally and theoretically that the in-depth accuracy of reconstructed APT images is perturbed when analyzing this structure composed of an oxide layer of high electrical permittivity (higher-k dielectric constant) that separates the metal gate and the semiconductor channel of a field emitter transistor. Large differences in the evaporation field between these layers (resulting from large differences in material properties) are the main sources of image distortions. An analytic model is used to interpret inaccuracy in the depth reconstruction of these devices in APT.