Carbon nanotube scanning probe for surface profiling of DUV and 193 nm photoresist pattern

The continual scaling down of CMOS feature size to 100 nm and below necessitates a characterization technique to resolve high aspect ratio features in the nanoscale regime. This paper reports the use of atomic force microscopy coupled with high aspect ratio multi-walled carbon nanotube scanning probe tip for the purpose of imaging surface profile of photoresists. Multi-walled carbon-nanotube tips used in this work are 5-10 nm in diameter and about a micron long. Their exceptional mechanical strength and ability to reversibly buckle enable resolution of steep, deep nanometer-scale features. Images ofphotorsit patterns generated by 257 nm interference lithography as well as 193 nm lithography are presented to demonstrate multi-walled carbon nanotube scanning probe tip for applications in metrology. © 2002 SPIE · 0277-786X/02/$15.00.