The Development of 3D Atomic Force Microscopy with Magnetically Driven-Orthogonal Cantilever Probes

This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D)-atomic force microscopy (AFM) method based on magnetically driven (MD)-orthogonal cantilever probes (OCPs), in which two independent scanners with three degrees of freedom are used to achieve the vector tracking of a sample surface with a controllable angle. A rotating stage is integrated into the compact AFM system, which helps to achieve 360° omnidirectional imaging. The specially designed MD-OCP includes a horizontal cantilever, a vertical cantilever, and a magnetic bead that can be used for the mechanical drive in a magnetic field. The vertical cantilever, which has a protruding tip, can detect deep grooves and undercut structures. The design, simulation, fabrication, and performance analysis of the MD-OCP are described first. Then, the amplitude compensation and home positioning for 360° rotation are introduced. A comparative experiment using an AFM step grating verifies the ability of the proposed method to characterize steep sidewalls and corner details, with a 3D topography reconstruction method being used to integrate the images. The effectiveness of the proposed 3D-AFM based on the MD-OCP is further confirmed by the 3D characterization of a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) device with microcomb structures. Finally, this technique is applied to determine the critical dimensions (CDs) of a microarray chip. The experimental results regarding the CD parameters show that, in comparison with 2D technology, from which it is difficult to obtain sidewall information, the proposed method can obtain CD information for 3D structures with high precision and thus has excellent potential for 3D micro–nano manufacturing inspection.