Analysis and characterization of line edge roughness of nanostructures

For characterizing line edge roughness (LER) and line width roughness (LWR), two kinds of nanostructures were fabricated with electron beam lithography process and inductively coupled plasma etching process. The fabricated nanostructures were measured and analyzed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and their line edges were extracted by mean of an off-line SEM image analysis algorithm. Based on random process theory, root mean square deviation σ, skewness (Sk), kurtosis(Ku), height-height correlation function and power spectral density function were employed to characterize the amplitude features, shape features and spatial characteristics of LER/LWR respectively. The transfer of LER/LWR of the resist lines into the silicon lines were investigated, and quantitative analysis and characterization of LER/LWR were realized.