Influence of the probe sizes on the parameters of the surface morphology of hemispherical-grain polysilicon films: Estimation via atomic-force microscopy

Abstract

The influence of probe sizes on the basic surface-morphology parameters of hemispherical-grain polysilicon films which possess substantial surface roughness and non-Gaussian height distribution functions with appreciable negative skewness is studied. The dependences between the basic surface morphology parameters S_dr, S_q, S_al, S_z, S_v, S_p, and S_sk defined by the ISO 25178-2:2012 standard and the probe width-to-tip height (W/L) ratio are determined. It is ascertained that the relative increase S_dr in the surface area is most sensitive to the “degree of sharpness” (W/L ratio) and, on the contrary, the autocorrelation length S_al is least sensitive. Hemispherical-grain silicon films with considerable parameter S_dr can be employed as test samples in estimating the degree of sharpness of a probe.