The industrial use of instruments based on Atomic Force Microscopy that
started in the mid 1990's has seen a wide spectrum of applications for product
and process controls in semiconductor industry where the continuous effort of
smaller and smaller size defect reduction is a driving force of the
technological development. The paper will examine a subsection of this world,
the electronic grade silicon wafer manufacturing and product development. In
this area, the technique is applied to the measurement of surface defect
geometry down to a size of a few angstroms and a surface micro-roughness at
various areas of inspection from 1E-10 cm2 to 1E-4 cm2. First, a brief
description of the measurement principle is given in order to discuss aspects
related to accuracy and stability of the technique when micro-roughness values
are considered. Then, a few examples involving the inspection of crystal
related defects detectable on the silicon wafer surface as well as different
textures following various surface-finishing processes will be discussed.
Finally, examples of the use of Atomic Force Microscopy on Silicon On
Insulator and strained silicon materials will give an insight about the
relevance of this technique in the field of New Materials development in the
electronics industry.