Characterizing Voltage Contrast in Photoelectron Emission Microscopy

TL;DR

This paper presents a non-destructive method using photoelectron emission microscopy to measure local voltage differences in microelectronic devices, validated by electrostatic models.

Contribution

It introduces a quantitative approach to characterize voltage contrast in PEEM, linking experimental measurements with electrostatic modeling.

Findings

Measured voltage contrast closely matches electrostatic model predictions.

Voltage contrast in PEEM effectively probes local voltages non-intrusively.

Method enables detailed voltage mapping in microelectronics.

Abstract

A non-destructive technique for obtaining voltage contrast information with photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM) is described. Samples consisting of electrically isolated metal lines were used to quantify voltage contrast in PEEM. The voltage contrast behavior is characterized by comparing measured voltage contrast with calculated voltage contrast from two electrostatic models. Measured voltage contrast was found to agree closely with the calculated voltage contrast, demonstrating that voltage contrast in PEEM can be used to probe local voltage information in microelectronic devices in a non-intrusive fashion.