Abstract
We established a simple electrothermal vaporization (ETV)/inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) technique without separating analyte elements from a matrix to determine trace metallic impurities of eight elements (Na, Mg, Al, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, and Cu) in a Y-1 (strontium (Sr)-bismuth (Bi)-tantalum (Ta)-oxygen (O)) thin film for semiconductor ferroelectric random-access memories. To improve the linearity of each calibration curve (20 pg ml-1-10 ng ml-1), we added the same concentration of Sr, Bi and Ta to a mixed standard solution as those in the sample solution as a mixed modifier. The recovery percentages obtained by adding 1 ng ml-1 of each element to the sample solution were between Al (90%)-Cr (105%). The detection limit (3σ) was 1.9×1010 (Mn)-1.3×1012 (Al) atoms cm-2 for a Y-1 thin film with a diameter of 150 mm. The proposed method was applied to the real samples to determine the eight metallic elements (1011-1013 atoms cm-2).
