Observation of dislocations and microplasma sites in semiconductors by direct correlations of STEBIC,STEM and ELS

A high voltage electron microscope, equipped with scanning transmission (STEM) attachment, electron beam induced conductivity (EBIC) facilities, and electron energy loss spectrometer (ELS), has been used to investigate semiconductor devices. The capability of STEM to produce, simultaneously or sequentially, conductive and transmission images of the same specimen region, which can also be ELS analysed, is exploited in order to establish direct and unambiguous correlations between EBIC and STEM images of defective regions (dislocations and microplasma sites) in silicon devices. The results obtained are discussed in terms of correlations, resolution, contrast, and radiation damage; in addition, a comparison is made between this method and the other correlation methods based on EBIC/SEM (scanning electron microscope) and TEM (transmission electron microscope).