Specific Process Knowledge/Characterization/AFM: Atomic Force Microscopy

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AFM Icon

AFM Icon-Pt Positioned in clean room: C-1

The AFM Dimension Icon is a product of Bruker. AFM stands for Atomic Force Microscope which is a scanning probe microscope where a sharp probe is scanned across a surface either in contact mode, tapping mode or PeakForce tapping mode. The outcome is a topographic plot of the surface. It has a lateral solution of about 1 nm and a vertical resolution of less than 1 Å which makes it very suitable for topographic characterization in the nanometer regime. The limiting factor however is often the size of the probe in use. The tip radius of curvature (ROC) can be from 2 nm up to more than 20 nm depending on the chosen probe. The half cone angle of the tip can vary from less than 3^o to over 25^o giving problems resolving high aspect ratio structures.

The main purposes are surface roughness measurements and step/structure high measurements in the nanometer and sub-micrometer regime. For larger structure see the topografic measurement page.

To get some product information from the vendor take a look at Bruker's homepage [1]

Before training: Please watch the training videos before the training on the instrument:

AFM Icon Part 1, AFM Icon Part 2 and AFM Icon Part 3

You can find them here: link to training videos

It is also recommanded to read Brukers presentation of contract mode, tapping mode and peak force tappping mode *click HERE

The user manual, quality control procedure and results and contact information can be found in LabManager:
Nanoman in LabManager

Process Information

• For a tutorial on AFM see here: AFM

• Free analysis software: For visualizing and analyzing AFM and Optical profiler files (Nanoman and Sensofar) Gwyddion
• or you can install Brukers own software analyses program that can be found on the cleanroom drive: U:\DCH\CleanroomDrive\_Equipment\AFM\NanoScope_Analysis_x86_v170r1sr2.exe
• or you can get a SPIP license for free if you are connected one of the following institutes (Nanotech, Physics, Chemistry, Mechanics, CEN, Danchip, Energikonvertering) , by contacting John Tandrup Riedel

• Media:AFM_Re-training_2015_v2.pdf
• AFM Icon Acceptance
• What experiment and probe to select
• Bruker introduction to contact mode, tapping mode and peak force tapping mode + how to improve image quality

An overview of the performance of the AFM Icon

Equipment		AFM Icon
Purpose	Topografic measurement in the nanometer and and sub-micrometer regime and electrical and mechanical measurements	Surface roughness measurement Step/structure hight measurement Surface image Surface potential Modulus Adhesion Deformation
Performance	Scan range xy	Up to 90 µm square
	Scan range z	Up to 13µm
	Vertical noise floor	<30pm RMS
	X-Y position noise (closed loop)	<0.15nm RMS
	Z sensor noise level(closed loop)	35pm RMS
	Integral nonlinearity(X-Y-Z)	<0.5%
	X-Y position noise (closed loop)	<0.15nm RMS
	Max. scan depth as a function of trench width W	~1 for our standard probe. Can be improved to about 10 with the right probe
Hardware settings	Tip radius of curvature	Standard probe: <12 nm
	Standard ScanAsyst mode Cantilever/tip	ScanAsyst in Air
	Standard Tapping mode Cantilevers/tips	Tap300Al-G
	Super Sharp Si Cantilever/tip	SSS-NCHR
	High Aspect Ratio Cantilever/tip	AR5-NCHR
	Cantilevers/tips vendor	Bruker www.nanoandmore.com
Substrates	Substrate size	Up to 210mm in diameter and up to 15mm thick"
	Motorized stage (X-Y axis)	180mmx150mm inspection area 2µm repeatability, unidirectional 3µm repeatability, bidirectional
	Substrate material allowed	In principle all materials