Accurate elemental mapping of semiconductor devices—separating ‘overlapping’ peaks

Instruments used

EDAX^® Octane Elite EDS detector series and APEX™ software for EDS

Background

Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) is a critical tool for the electronics industry in research and development and quality control environments, where elemental mapping is used to visualize the distribution(s) of dielectric layers and electrical contacts within individual devices of integrated circuits. However, many of the materials that are used in the construction of electronic devices and their electrical interconnects have, traditionally, been thought to be difficult to map by EDS. This is due to the inability of EDS detectors to resolve important characteristic x-ray peaks, such as Si K, Ta M, and W M (energies 1.740, 1.709, and 1.774 keV, respectively).