METHOD FOR DETERMINING OVERLAY ERRORS, METHOD OF MANUFACTURING MULTILAYERED SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE, NUCLEAR MICROSCOPE DEVICE,

摘要

CLAIMS What is claimed is: 1. A method for determining an overlay error between device layers of a multi-layer semiconductor device using an atomic force microscope system, the semiconductor device comprising a stack of device layers comprising a first patterned layer and a second patterned layer, The system includes a scan head, wherein the scan head includes a probe, the probe including a cantilever and a probe tip arranged on the cantilever, the method comprising: scanning the probe tip with a probe tip And moving the semiconductor devices relative to each other in at least one direction parallel to the surface; Monitoring the movement of the probe tip relative to the scan head with a tip position detector during the scanning to obtain an output signal; The method comprising: during the scanning, applying a first acoustic input signal comprising a signal component of a first frequency to at least one of the probe or the semiconductor device; Analyzing the output signal to map at least the subsurface nano structure below the surface of the semiconductor device; And determining an overlay error between the first patterned layer and the second patterned layer based on the analysis.