High-speed atomic force microscopy and peak force tapping control

Shuiqing Hu; Lars Mininni; Yan Hu; Natalia Erina; Johannes Kindt; Chanmin Su

doi:10.1117/12.928545

5 April 2012 High-speed atomic force microscopy and peak force tapping control

Shuiqing Hu, Lars Mininni, Yan Hu, Natalia Erina, Johannes Kindt, Chanmin Su

Proceedings Volume 8324, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XXVI; 83241O (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.928545
Event: SPIE Advanced Lithography, 2012, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

ITRS Roadmap requires defect size measurement below 10 nanometers and challenging classifications for both blank and patterned wafers and masks. Atomic force microscope (AFM) is capable of providing metrology measurement in 3D at sub-nanometer accuracy but has long suffered from drawbacks in throughput and limitation of slow topography imaging without chemical information. This presentation focus on two disruptive technology developments, namely high speed AFM and quantitative nanomechanical mapping, which enables high throughput measurement with capability of identifying components through concurrent physical property imaging. The high speed AFM technology has allowed the imaging speed increase by 10-100 times without loss of the data quality. Such improvement enables the speed of defect review on a wafer to increase from a few defects per hour to nearly 100 defects an hour, approaching the requirements of ITRS Roadmap. Another technology development, Peak Force Tapping, substantially simplified the close loop system response, leading to self-optimization of most challenging samples groups to generate expert quality data. More importantly, AFM also simultaneously provides a series of mechanical property maps with a nanometer spatial resolution during defect review. These nanomechanical maps (including elastic modulus, hardness, and surface adhesion) provide complementary information for elemental analysis, differentiate defect materials by their physical properties, and assist defect classification beyond topographic measurements. This paper will explain the key enabling technologies, namely high speed tip-scanning AFM using innovative flexure design and control algorithm. Another critical element is AFM control using Peak Force Tapping, in which the instantaneous tip-sample interaction force is measured and used to derive a full suite of physical properties at each imaging pixel. We will provide examples of defect review data on different wafers and media disks. The similar AFM-based defect review capacity was also applied to EUV masks.

Citation Download Citation

Shuiqing Hu, Lars Mininni, Yan Hu, Natalia Erina, Johannes Kindt, and Chanmin Su "High-speed atomic force microscopy and peak force tapping control", Proc. SPIE 8324, Metrology, Inspection, and Process Control for Microlithography XXVI, 83241O (5 April 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.928545

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