Use of light scattering in characterizing reactively ion etched profiles

Currently, profile control in plasma etching of submicron structures requires inspection of cleaved samples by scanning electron microscopy. This is time consuming, destructive, and limited to a small subset of processed wafers. We show that light scattering can be used to rapidly characterize submicron differences in reactively ion etched, periodic Si structures. A similar approach has been used previously to monitor etching rates and undercutting using specular and first order diffraction peaks. Here, we measure all orders scattered over 180° as a function of incident angle and polarization and focus on the use of this technique coupled with statistical methodology to distinguish subtle changes in line profile. Although scatter from grating test patterns is examined here, this method should also be applicable to complex, submicron device structures.