Studying post-etching silicon crystal defects on 300mm wafers by automatic defect review AFM.

In this article, the author focuses on studying post-etching silicon crystal defects on 300mm wafers by automatic defect. Topics discussed include need of atomic force microscopy for obtaining three-dimensional information of crystal defects; inspection of bare silicon wafers for surface defects; and comparison between the data collected with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) vs. atomic-force microscopy (AFM) for the same defect.