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US 2020/0049734 A1Published application
High Speed Atomic Force Profilometry of Large Areas
AssigneeBruker Nano, Inc.
InventorsJason Osborne, Vladimir Fonoberov, Sean Michael Hand
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method of operating an atomic force profiler (AFP), such as an AFM, using a feedforward control signal in subsequent scan lines of a large area sample to achieve large throughput advantages in, for example, automated applications.
Claims15
A method of atomic force profilometry (AFP), the method comprising:
- providing relative scanning motion between a probe of the AFM and a sample at a first line of the sample;
- measuring the deflection of the probe in response to the providing step and controlling the probe-sample separation according to a mode of AFM operation;
- generating a feed forward Z signal based on the measuring step;
- providing relative scanning motion between the probe and the sample at a second line of the sample;
- measuring the deflection of the probe in the second line and controlling the probe-sample separation according to a mode of AFM operation;
- combining the feedforward Z signal with the measured deflection corresponding to the second line to generate a HyperZ signal;
- and
- using the HyperZ signal in a next line of the scan as the feed forward Z signal.
5 more elements
An atomic force microscope (AFM) comprising:
- a scanner that provides relative scanning motion between a probe of the AFM and a sample;
- a detector that measures the deflection of the probe in response to probe-sample interaction during AFM operation;
- a controller that generates a feed forward Z signal based on the measured deflection corresponding to a first line of the scanning motion, and combines the feedforward Z signal with the measured deflection corresponding to a second line of the scanning motion to generate a HyperZ signal;
- and
- wherein the HyperZ signal is used in a next line of the scanning motion as the feed forward Z signal.
2 more elements
A method of operating an atomic force profiling (AFP) instrument for post-CMP hotspot detection on a semiconductor sample, the method comprising:
- providing relative scanning motion between a probe of the AFP and a sample at a first line of the sample;
- measuring the deflection of the probe in response to the providing step and controlling the probe-sample separation according to a mode of AFM operation;
- generating a feed forward Z signal based on the measuring step;
- providing relative scanning motion between the probe and the sample at a second line of the sample;
- measuring the deflection of the probe in the second line and controlling the probe-sample separation according to a mode of AFM operation;
- combining the feedforward Z signal with the measured deflection corresponding to the second line to generate a HyperZ signal;
- using the HyperZ signal in a next line of the scan as the feed forward Z signal;
- repeating the above steps for a region of interest to generate HyperZ data based on the HyperZ signals;
- and
- identifying a post-CMP hotspot of the sample based on the HyperZ data.
7 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.