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

Published

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

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 March 29, 2024)
Created February 28, 2007, Updated October 12, 2021