Conductive photoresist pattern for long term calibration of scanning electron microscope

A method of reducing electrostatic charges on a standard developed photoresist to improve repeated calibrations of a measurement instrument that uses an electron beam, comprising:

• providing a conductive photresist on a semiconductor structure;
• exposing the conductive photresist with radiation having a wavelength of about 370 nm or less;
• developing the conductive photoresist to provide a patterned conductive photoresist, wherein the patterned conductive photoresist has a conductivity of at least about 0.01 S/cm;
• and
• calibrating the measurement instrument with the semiconductor structure having the patterned conductive photoresist thereon as a standard.

A method of improving critical dimension measurement of an integrated circuit feature, comprising:

• providing a conductive photoresist on a semiconductor structure having a conductivity of at least about 0.1 S/cm;
• exposing the conductive photoresist;
• developing the conductive photoresist to provide a patterned conductive photoresist having a conductivity of at least about 0.01 S/cm;
• calibrating a scanning electron microscope with the semiconductor structure having the patterned conductive photoresist thereon as a standard;
• and
• measuring critical dimensions of the integrated circuit feature with an electron beam generated from the scanning electron microscope.