Multislice imaging of integrated circuits by precession X-ray ptychography

A method for nondestructively visualizing multisection nanostructures of integrated circuits by X-ray ptychography with a multislice approach is proposed. In this study, tilt-series ptychographic diffraction data sets of a two-layered circuit with a ∼1.4 µm gap at nine incident angles are collected in a wide Q range and then artifact-reduced phase images of each layer are successfully reconstructed at ∼10 nm resolution. The present method has great potential for the three-dimensional observation of flat specimens with thickness on the order of 100 µm, such as three-dimensional stacked integrated circuits based on through-silicon vias, without laborious sample preparation.