Development of a comprehensive metrology platform dedicated to dimensional measurements of CD atomic force microscopy tips

In this paper, we present our most recent approach on the extraction of reliable atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip dimensions from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images in order to answer future requirements on ever shrinking CD AFM tips. We demonstrate the capabilities of a newly developed, fully automatic analysis software based on advanced SEM image modeling and user a-priori knowledge integration in SEM image analysis algorithm. The impact of such breakthrough technology will be shown as a function of its stability and robustness by varying tip shape, imaging settings, and SEM setup parameters. The extracted values are compared to data yielded from a commonly used SEM image analysis approach based on threshold type algorithms, and directly related to reference CD AFM measurements. We will discuss the prospective challenges accompanied with shrinking tip dimensions and the potential of a comprehensive data fusion approach, which can be used for both R&D and high volume production.