Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
1.62 nm
Line analysis
1044.81nm
783.80nm
522.40nm
281.20nm
0.00nm
0.00µm
3.44µm
8.88µm
10.32µm
0 µm
10.32 µm
Pair 1
Pair 2
x (µm)
z (nm)
x (µm)
z (nm)
5.564
830.888
38.785
-792.083
1
3.533
979.699
2
distance
3.940
48.421
-931.278
5.280
-0.264
Line 1
0.406
-66.44°
-70.26°
0 nm
0 µm
1.07 µm
253 nm
0 nm
0 µm
1.91 µm
2.33 µm
0 µm
Fig. 7.29. Examples of high-technology applications in the semiconductor industry. Top left: using
AFM to measure the quality of polishing by CMP. The CMP processes can achieve extraordinary
flatness, as may be seen from the very small
z
-scale of this height image. The rms roughness (
R
q
)of
this image is less than 1 nm. Top right: metrological measurement over a trench on a patterned
wafer. Bottom left: thin film characterization by grain analysis on a polysilicon film. Bottom right:
example of a defect imaged in a cross-sectioned device (circled).
length, and the angles of the bits sides. Although the AFM is helpful in developing these
products, the AFM is typically not used in the mass production of optical media. A very
common application for the AFM in the data storage industry is the study of pole tip
recession on hard disk drive read/write heads [732]. The manufacture of hard disk heads is
another example of a process that has extremely low error tolerances, due to the small
head-platter distance in hard drives. AFM is used to accurately measure the recession
(trench) that is used to protect the poles in operation [733]. Of course, MFM is also capable
of measuring the magnetic domains with high resolution, which becomes increasingly
important as data density increases [734]. Another application in the hard disk industry is
measurement of laser bumps. These bumps on the surface of hard drives are used to
