Recent developments in microelectronic devices have increased the need for new investigative techniques. Much of the development on Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) occurred in the early 70's. Since that time, much of the work has been devoted to using this technique to investigate defects in semiconductor devices. Less attention has been focused on electrical measurement of semiconductor properties.

A digital EBIC method to characterize semiconductors has been developed and is presented here. The sample current is measured using a Keithley 670 electrometer controlled through a GPIB interface by a standard computer. The electron beam from the scanning electron microscope (SEM) is synchronized with the current acquisition. All the acquisition is controlled by a Labview virtual instrument (Figure 1).

As an example of the performance of this method, a special sample was analyzed. A novel method of resistless lithography process was developed in our laboratory. This technique is dedicated to overcome limits of conventional resist based electron beam lithography.