The detection and quantification of trace metals is an important analytical task in the semiconductor industry.
TOF-SIMS is able to detect all elements (even the light ones) with isotope sensitivity. High mass resolution, high mass accuracy and good signal to noise ratio allow sensitivities down to 1E7 to 1E9 atoms/cm².
The technique can be applied to patterned wafers and even to the backside of a wafer without loss in sensitivity.
Quantification is done by using external standards with an accuracy comparable to other techniques such as TXRF or ICP-MS.

Typical application areas of ultra-shallow depth profiling are the classical SIMS tasks in the semiconductor industry. Here, mainly the profiling of low energy implants of boron, phosphorous and arsenic are of interest, but also the profiling of ultra-shallow gate oxides and the detection of trace elements within the native oxide requires excellent sensitivities for low energy sputtering.
The parallel detection of all masses allows the measurement of the also implanted F as well as of metal contaminants e. g. Aluminium at the same time, thus making the technique well-suited for screening purposes.

The monitoring of organic contaminants becomes more and more important for the semiconductor industry. TOF-SIMS provides detailed inorganic and organic information about the wafer surface.
Possible sources of contaminants are:

In the semiconductor industry ultra-thin films such as diffusion barriers and high-k layers are more and more often manufactured by atomic layer deposition (ALD).
The example shows five different LEIS spectra taken after an increasing number of deposition cycles of WNXCY on silicon.
By monitoring the decreasing silicon and the increasing tungsten signal it can clearly be seen that 40 ALD deposition cycles are necessary for a closed layer of WNXCY.
The peak shape on the low-energy side of the tungsten WNXCY SiOX surface peak also shows the growth of multiple layer islands before reaching full coverage.
By measuring the energy loss the minimum and maximum thickness of the film can be calculated with sub-nm precision. Growth modes can be determined following the development of the in-depth signals with an increasing number of deposition cycles.

OLED technology is used in portable devices such as mobile phones, portable music players, car radios etc.
One of the biggest technical problems left is the limited lifetime of the organic materials.
It is therefore important to study the chemistry of the different organic layers.