Application of Carbon Nanotube Probes in a Critical Dimension Atomic Force Microscope

Published

March 1, 2007

Author(s)

B C. Park, J Choi, S J. Ahn, D H. Kim, L Joon, Ronald G. Dixson, Ndubuisi George Orji, Joseph Fu, Theodore V. Vorburger

Abstract

The ever decreasing size of semiconductor features demands the advancement of critical dimension atomic force microscope (CD-AFM) technology, for which the fabrication and use of more ideal probes like carbon nanotubes (CNT) is of considerable interest. The recent progress in the precise control of CNT orientation, length, and end modification, using manipulation and focused ion beam processes, allowed us to implement ball-capped CNT tips and bent CNT tips for CD-AFM. Such CNT tips have been tested for the first time in a commercial CD-AFM to image a grating and line edge roughness samples. We found out that CNT tips can reasonably scan the pattern profiles including re-entrant sidewalls with the CNT tip geometries we used and with the available range of scan parameters. There still remain important issues to address - including tighter control of tip geometry and optimization of scan parameters and algorithms for using CNT tips.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of SPIE

Volume

6518

Conference Dates

February 26, 2007

Conference Location

San Jose, CA, US

Conference Title

Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XXI, Chas N. Archie, Editor

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

atomic force microscope (AFM), carbon nanotube (CNT) tip, nano-manipulation, ion beam bending (IBB), ion beam induced deposition (IBID), critical dimension (CD) metrology

Citation

Park, B. , Choi, J. , Ahn, S. , Kim, D. , Joon, L. , Dixson, R. , Orji, N. , Fu, J. and Vorburger, T. (2007), Application of Carbon Nanotube Probes in a Critical Dimension Atomic Force Microscope, Proceedings of SPIE, San Jose, CA, US (Accessed December 14, 2024)