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M. G. HEATON, L. M. GE* & F. M. SERRY, Digital Instruments, Veeco Metrology Group, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
*Currently at Intel Corp., Santa Clara, CA, USA

ABSTRACT

Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) has become widely used in the semiconductor industry due to its ability to provide global planarisation for a wide range of sub-micron processes. With the widespread adoption of CMP and continually shrinking IC device dimensions, demands on metrology tools to characterise the process have also greatly increased. Higher resolution, higher performance, non-destructive metrology is now required to accurately and repeatably measure both large scale and fine-scale features using the same tool. To meet these needs, we have developed a new tool – the Atomic Force Profiler – that combines the benefits of profilometry and atomic force microscopy.