SEM and AFM Integration Imaging

Integrated SEM and AFM Imaging

SEM images of a Nanonics AFM Non-obscuring Probe
 


 

Probe in contact with a sample inside the vacuum chamber of the SEM. 
Magnification: 120X (top) and 1000X (bottom). 
The sample is a patterned GaN sample with a line spacing of 10microns.
 

 

The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) has difficulty obtaining information on a variety of samples. One such situation is the case of a trench in a semiconductor wafer in which a SEM cannot view the bottom or the sidewall of the trench structure.

Using the unique AFM capabilities of the MultiView 400™  The operator of a SEM or FIB machine can ask, on line, questions about high aspect ratio structures (eg. side wall angles and the surface structure of these sidewall in a variety of important devices with vias and other structures.

  
 
A Nanonics MultiView 4000™head inside the chamber of a SEM chamber

Imaging a deep trench such as the one opposite is impossible with standard silicon AFM tips. The Nanonics deep trench probes together with the large scan range of the 3D FlatScan™ makes these images possible for the first time.		  
 

10 x 10 micron AFM image of a 10 micron deep/2 micron wide trench (Z-range 10 micron)
     
The bottom of a deep trench    


Nanonics deep trench probes make it possible to form images from the bottom of a deep trench of up to 1.5mm.		  
 
 

1 x 1 micron AFM image of the bottom of the deep trench (Z-range 100 nm)
     
Side wall image    


Only the Nanonics 3D FlatScan™ is able to scan in the X-Z plane to image features on the side of a deep trench		  
 
 

5 x 5 micron X-Z scan of the sidewall of the deep trench (Y-range 150 nm)
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