Electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) is a semiconductor analysis technique performed in a scanning electron microscope (SEM) or

scanning transmission electron microscope A scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) is a type of transmission electron microscope (TEM). Pronunciation is tɛmor �sti:i:ɛm As with a conventional transmission electron microscope (CTEM), images are formed by electrons passing ...

(STEM). It is used to identify buried junctions or defects in semiconductors, or to examine

minority carrier In physics, a charge carrier is a particle or quasiparticle that is free to move, carrying an electric charge, especially the particles that carry electric charges in electrical conductors. Examples are electrons, ions and holes. The term ...

properties. EBIC is similar to

cathodoluminescence Cathodoluminescence is an optical and electromagnetic phenomenon in which electrons impacting on a luminescent material such as a phosphor, cause the emission of photons which may have wavelengths in the visible spectrum. A familiar example is th ...

in that it depends on the creation of electron–hole pairs in the semiconductor sample by the microscope's electron beam. This technique is used in semiconductor

failure analysis Failure analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing data to determine the cause of a failure, often with the goal of determining corrective actions or liability. According to Bloch and Geitner, ”machinery failures reveal a reaction chain o ...

and

solid-state physics Solid-state physics is the study of rigid matter, or solids, through methods such as quantum mechanics, crystallography, electromagnetism, and metallurgy. It is the largest branch of condensed matter physics. Solid-state physics studies how the l ...

Physics of the technique

If the semiconductor sample contains an internal electric field, as will be present in the

depletion region In semiconductor physics, the depletion region, also called depletion layer, depletion zone, junction region, space charge region or space charge layer, is an insulating region within a conductive, doped semiconductor material where the mobile ...

at a p-n junction or Schottky junction, the electron–hole pairs will be separated by drift due to the electric field. If the p- and n-sides (or semiconductor and Schottky contact, in the case of a Schottky device) are connected through a picoammeter, a current will flow. EBIC is best understood by analogy: in a

solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.
EBIC has also been extended to the study of local defects in insulators. For example, W.S. Lau ( Lau Wai Shing) developed "true oxide electron beam induced current" in the 1990s. Thus, besides p-n junction or Schottky junction, EBIC can also be applied to MOS diodes. Local defects in

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...

and local defects in the insulator could be distinguished. There exists a kind of defect which originates in the

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ...

substrate and extends into the insulator on top of the

substrate. (Please see references below.) Recently, EBIC has been applied to high-k dielectric used in advanced CMOS technology.

Quantitative EBIC

Most EBIC images are qualitative and only show the EBIC signal as contrast image. Use of an external scan control generator on the SEM and a dedicated data acquisition system allow for sub-picoamp measurements and can give quantitative results. Some systems are commercially available that do this, and provide the ability to provide functional imaging by biasing and applying gate voltages to semiconductor devices.

References

* (Review Article) * * * * * * * (Note: EBIC was performed on advanced high-k gate stack even though it is not obvious by reading the title of the paper.) *{{cite journal , last=Chen , first=Guannan , last2=McGuckin , first2=Terrence , last3=Hawley , first3=Christopher J. , last4=Gallo , first4=Eric M. , last5=Prete , first5=Paola , last6=Miccoli , first6=Ilio , last7=Lovergine , first7=Nico , last8=Spanier , first8=Jonathan E. , title=Subsurface Imaging of Coupled Carrier Transport in GaAs/AlGaAs Core–Shell Nanowires , journal=Nano Letters , publisher=American Chemical Society (ACS) , volume=15 , issue=1 , date=29 December 2014 , issn=1530-6984 , doi=10.1021/nl502995q , pmid=25545191 , pages=75–79 Electron beam Scientific techniques Semiconductor device fabrication Semiconductor analysis