Veeco Nanoscope V Multimode AFM First Imaging Tests

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Today I decided to get the AFM I have here up and running. I’ve not had any formal training on an AFM (Atomic Force Microscope) so I’m feeling my way as I go. As a first test I wanted to try something with quite large feature sizes, I had no calibration standard so acquired some used wafers (in this case a late 90s FPGA (ProASIC)) with relatively large features as an initial test.

The image above shows some of the features I assume on the upper metal layer of the FPGA. The feature size seems to be around 200 to 700nm which seems about right for 90s tech. Cantilever installation, laser alignment and the imaging process is non-trivial. The videos below document the process I used to get these images:

These two images were taken in “height” mode. They didn’t come out very well to my mind. It seems that switching the imaged value to “amplitude” (amplitude of what if not effective height I don’t know) seemed to produce much better images like that shown above.

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Here are some more amplitude images…

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