• Ph.D., Statistical Mechanics of Gas-Solid Surface Scattering, Purdue University, 1979
• B.S., Chemistry, Indiana University-Purdue University, 1975

Areas of research:

• Nanoscale metrology and materials science
• Materials characterization at the nanoscale
• Semiconductor metrology and characterization

Research website:  www.albany.edu/OpticalPhysics

Awards:

• AVS Fellow

Description of research:

The main focus of Professor Diebold's research will be in the area of nanoscale metrology and materials science. Measurement of nanoscale films and structures requires a thorough understanding of the impact of phenomena such as quantum confinement in semiconductors, quantum size effects in metals, and surface states. Recent research (J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B24, (2006), pp2156 - 2159) has shown that the shift in the critical point of thin silicon films can be explained by quantum confinement. Through understanding of this shift, film thickness measurement by ellipsometry can be observed. It is interesting to note that this effect was observed at room temperature using ellipsometry. The same phenomena impacts other structures. One part of this research will be extending these concepts to other materials and structures.

Another research area is the imaging and characterization of nano-scale structures using electron microscopy. Simulation of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning TEM (STEM) imaging is more important than ever as aberration corrected microscopes are introduced. This work will be done in collaboration with other faculty and research institutions.

In the area of semiconductor metrology and characterization, Professor Diebold's industry coordination and collaborative development of new methods and technology will continue. Research in this area will include critical dimension measurement, measurement of stress in nano-scale films and structures, and process control.

Editorial Activity:

• Associate Editor IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing
• Member Editorial Board, Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology 
• Metrology Section of Future FAB International
• Metrology Section of Semiconductor International

Conferences of Interest:

Chair 2010 International Conference of Spectroscopic Ellipsometry
Conference Web Link 

Chair 2009 Technical Sessions of American Vacuum Society's Manufacturing Science and Technology Group 

Co-Chair of 2009 Frontiers of Characterization and Metrology for Nanoelectronics http://www.eeel.nist.gov/812/conference/

Recent Invited Presentations:

From the Lab to the FAB: the Progression of Laboratory to FAB based Measurements, 10th European Advanced Equipment Control/Advanced Process Control (AEC/APC) Conference, Catania, Sicily - Italy, April 21 - 23, 2010.

Metrology of Advanced Materials with Emphasis on High K - Metal Gate and Graphene, KLA-Tencor's CTO Seminar Series, July 16, 2009.

Process integration and process characterization of high-k/metal gate stacks, 18th Material for Advanced Metallization Workshop, Grenoble, France, March  8 to 11, 2009.

Overview of Optical Measurements for Advanced Transistor Processes, Columbia University, Dec. 9, 2008.

Impact of Quantum Confinement on the characterization of thin semiconductor films, AVS - Surface Analysis 2008, State College, PA, June 2008

Metrology requirements for double patterning - Approaching the Optical Limit: Practical Methods for Patterning 22nm HP and Beyond, Lake George, NY, May 15, 2008

Are Optical Measurements Sensitive to Quantum Confinement?, DPG 2008 Annual Meeting of the German Society of Physics (DPG), Berlin, Feb 25-29, 2008 

Optical Characterization of Thin Semiconductor and Metal Films, FENA ONAMI Workshop on Nanoelectronics for High Performance Computing and Information Processing, UCLA, Nov. 20, 2007

Optical Observation of Quantum Confinement and Quantum Size Effects, Rutgers Surface Science Seminar Series, Sept. 13, 2007

Ellipsometry and NanoMetrology, 4^th International Conference on Spectroscopic Ellipsometry, Stockholm, June 11-15, 2007

Metrology for Nanoelectronics: Metrology Roadmap, AEC-APC Europe, Dresden, April 17-19, 2007

Characterization and Metrology for Nanoelectronics, Frontiers of Characterization and Metrology for Nanoelectronics, Gaithersburg, March 27-29, 2007

Metrology for Nanoelectronics: the Impact of Nanoscale Dimensions, Workshop on Metrology for Beyond CMOS, FENA, San Francisco, Dec. 14, 2006

Characterization and Metrology for Nanoelectronics, Albany NanoTech, Oct. 31, 2006

Characterization and Metrology for Nanoelectronics, NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Engineering Seminar Series, Oct. 16, 2006

Metrology at the Leading Edge, IEEE Engineering Management Conference, University of Texas, Aug. 10, 2006

Impact of Nanosized Dimensions on Characterization and Metrology, IBM Yorktown Heights, May 5, 2006

Metrology for Nanoelectronics: Future Needs and the Transition of Lab Methods into the FAB, Fraunhofer Center for Nanoelectronics, Dresden, April 5, 2006

Metrology (including Materials Characterization) for Nanoelectronics, SPIE Conference on Testing, Reliability, and Application of Micro- and Nano-Materials Systems IV, San Diego, 26 Feb - Mar. 2, 2006

The importance of aberration corrected SEM and TEM to the Semiconductor Industry, November, 2005, 52^nd National Symposium of the AVS, Boston, MA

Characterization for Next Generation Semiconductor Process Development by Analytical Electron Microscopy, Brendan Foran, Mark Clark, Guoda Lian, Michael Campin,  & Alain Diebold, ECASIA, September, 2005

Interface Sensitive Measurement of High k Film Stacks using Optical Second Harmonic Generation,  American Physical Society Meeting, March 2005

Metrology for Nanoelectronics, Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology, March 2005

Significant Books:

Handbook of Silicon Semiconductor Metrology (Dekker, 2001)

Co-editor of:

• Semiconductor Characterization: Present Status and Future Needs (1996)
• Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology (1998, 2000, 2003, and 2005)
• Frontiers of Metrology and Characterization for Nanoelectronics 2007, AIP Press. 
• Analytical and Diagnostic Techniques for Semiconductor Materials, Devices, and Processes 7, ECS Transactions Vol. II No. 3 2007.

Recent Publications:

Graphene Metrology and Devices (review article), A.C. Diebold and F. Nelson, Int. Jour. Mat. Res., in press.

Optical Properties of Semiconductors, D.G. Seiler, S. Zollner, A.C. Diebold, and P.M. Amirtharaj, Chapter 36 in the Handbook of Optics, (McGraw Hill, NY, in process).

Observation of quantum confinement and quantum size effects, A.C. Diebold and J.Price, Phys. Stat. Sol., in press.

Quantum Level Metrology, Semiconductor International, August, 2009.

Identification of Sub-Bandgap Absorption Features at the High-κ / Silicon interface and Their Relation to Charge Trapping States, J. Price, H-J Li, P. Lysaght, and A.C. Diebold, Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, (2007), pp 61925-1  -  61925-3

X-Ray Reflectometry Determination of Structural Information from Atomic Layer Deposition Nanometer-scale Hafnium Oxide Thin Films D. Windover, D. L. Gil, J. P. Cline, A. Henins, N. Armstrong, P. Y. Hung, S. C. Song, R. Jammy, and A.C. Diebold, to appear in Proceedings of MRS

Application of Aberration Corrected TEM and Image Simulation to Nanoelectronics and Nanotechnology, B. Korgel, D.C. Lee, T. Hanrath, M.J. Yacamann, A. Thesen, M. Matijevic, R. Kilaas, C. Kisielowski, and A.C. Diebold,  IEEE Trans. Semicon. Manufact. 19, (2006), pp 391-396

Spectroscopic Ellipsometry Characterization of Ultra-Thin Silicon-on-Insulator Films, J. Price and A.C. Diebold, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B24, (2006), pp 2156-2159

Optical characterization of process-dependent charging in hafnium oxide structures, R. Carriles, J. Kwon, Y. Q. An, S. Stanley, J. G. Ekerdt, M. C. Downer, J. Price, and A.C. Diebold,  J. Vac. Sci. Tech. B24, (2006), pp 2160-2168

Second-Harmonic Characterization of Si/Hf(1-x)Si_xO₂ Structures, R. Carriles, J. Kwon, J. C. Miller, Y. Q. An, M. C. Downer, J. Price, and A.C. Diebold, Appl. Phys.Lett. 88, (2006), p 161120

Spatial distributions of trapping centers in HfO₂/SiO₂ gate stacks, D. Heh, C.D. Young, G.A. Brown,  P.Y. Hung, A.C. Diebold, G. Bersuker, E.M. Vogel, and J.B. Bernstein, Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 152907 (2006)

Optical band gaps and composition dependence of hafnium-aluminate thin films grown by atomic layer chemical vapor deposition, N. V. Nguyen, S. Sayan, I. Levin, J. R. Ehrstein, I. J. R. Baumvol and C. Driemeier, C. Krug, L. Wielunski, P. Y. Hung and Alain Diebold, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A23, 2005, pp 1706-1713

Study of Two-Dimensional B Doping Profile in Si FinFET Structures by HAADF, D. Garcia-Gutierrez, A.A. Khajetoorians, X.D. Wang, D. Pham, H. Celio, A. Diebold, C.K. Shih and M. Jose-Yacaman, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B24, 2006, pp 730-738

X-ray reflectometry and x-ray fluorescence monitoring of the atomic layer deposition process for high-k gate dielectrics, P. Y. Hung, C. Gondran, A. Ghatak-Roy, S.Terada, B. Bunday, H. Yeung, A.C. Diebold, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B23, (2005), pp 2244-2248

Electrical Characterization of Spatial Distributions of Trapping Centers in HfO₂/SiO₂ Stacked Dielectrics, D. Heh, E.M. Vogel, J.B. Bernstein, C.D. Young, G.A. Brown, G. Bersuker, P.Y. Hung, and A.C. Diebold, submitted to IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 2005 still under review

Second Harmonic Characterization of Si/Hf_(1-x)Si_xO₂ Interfaces, R. Carriles, J. Kwon, Y.Q. An, J.C. Miller, M.C. Downer, J. Price, and A.C. Diebold, Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics, Baltimore, May 22-27, 2005

Complimentary Optical Metrology Techniques used for Characterization of High-K Gate Dielectrics, J. Price, A.C. Diebold, R. Carriles, Y. An, J. Kwon, and M.C. Downer, Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology 2005, Eds. D.G. Seiler, A.C. Diebold, R. McDonald, C. Ayre, R. Khosla, S. Zollner, AIP Conference Proceedings 788, pp 129-135, 2005

Optical and X-ray Metrology of Porous Low-k Materials, H. Celio and A.C. Diebold, Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology 2005, Eds. D.G. Seiler, A.C. Diebold, R. McDonald, C. Ayre, R. Khosla, S. Zollner, AIP Conference Proceedings 788, pp 522-532, 2005

Characterization of Atomic Layer Deposition using X-Ray Reflectometry, D. Windover, P.Y. Hung, P. Kirsch, N. Armstrong, J.P. Cline, A.C. Diebold, Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology 2005, Eds. D.G. Seiler, A.C. Diebold, R. McDonald, C. Ayre, R. Khosla, S. Zollner, AIP Conference Proceedings 788, pp 161-165, 2005

Metrology (including Materials Characterization) for Nanoelectronics, A.C. Diebold, Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology 2005, Eds. D.G. Seiler, A.C. Diebold, R. McDonald, C. Ayre, R. Khosla, S. Zofllner, AIP Conference Proceedings 788, pp 11-20, 2005

A Comparison of Thickness Values for Very Thin SiO2 Films by Using Ellipsometric, Capacitance-Voltage and HRTEM Measurements, J. Ehrstein, C. Richter, D. Chandler-Horowitz, E. Vogel, C. Young, S. Shah, D. Maher, B. Foran, P.Y. Hung, A.C. Diebold, J. Electrochem. Soc. 153(1), F12-F19 (2005)