Doping profiling with scanning surface harmonic microscopy

The scanning surface harmonic microscope in which a microwave signal is applied across a tip-sample gap is sensitive to the capacitance/voltage characteristics of semiconductor samples. Its ability to distinguish among a wide range of dopant concentrations with high lateral resolution allow applications as a dopant profiler. Lateral dimensions of electronic features and the ultimate resolution limit of this technique are discussed using atomic resolution data and sizes of domain boundaries on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite and using depletion regions on doping gratings similar to real device structures. The technological applicability of the instrument has been tested on polished surfaces of trench capacitor arrays. © 1995 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.