Advanced 3D metrology Atomic Force Microscope

With the continuous shrinkage of feature size in semiconductor devices, the accurate and reliable metrology of these devices has become very challenging. One aspect of metrology which has posed many challenges for integrated circuits (IC) fabrication is sidewall roughness characterization. Although, sidewall roughness is one of the most critical factors that needs to be characterized and well controlled, currently there is no existing technology that can measure the sidewall roughness well. Here, we present a new 3D metrology Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) capable of high resolution sidewall roughness measurements with improved repeatability and accuracy.