Nanoscale molecular analysis with nano-projectile SIMS

Here we examine a new methodology for spatially resolved molecular analysis to address an important area of need related to the performance of EUV resists, namely detection of molecular components at a scale below the current 20 nm critical dimension. Analysis consists of stochastically sampling the surface with a suite of nano projectiles each of which results in the emission of multiple secondary ions, SIs, from a volume 10-15 nm in diameter on the surface. The SI detector is a multi-anode detector allowing for the radial and translational energies of each SI to be examined. We tested this new methodology on model line patterned EUV resist materials and found the when bombarding the surface with the primary ion path perpendicular to the line pattern, impacts on top of the intact resist resulted in the emission of SI with high translational and axial energies in the forward direction. In contrast, impacts which occurred on the resist sidewalls results in emission in the backward direction. Thus, by examining the energies of emitted SIs molecular analysis can be undertaken on each part of the pattern (side wall, intact resist, substrate) with high resolution.