公开(公告)号：US20190277881A1

公开(公告)日：2019-09-12

申请号：US16296068

申请日：2019-03-07

Applicant: IMEC vzw

Inventor： Kristof Paredis ,  Claudia Fleischmann ,  Wilfried Vandervorst

IPC: G01Q10/04 ,  G01Q60/24 ,  G01Q30/20

Abstract: The disclosed technology relates to a method and apparatus for correctly positioning a probe suitable for scanning probe microscopy (SPM). The probe is positioned relative to the apex region of a needle-shaped sample, such as a sample for atom probe tomography, in order to perform a SPM acquisition of the apex region to obtain an image of the region. In one aspect, the positioning takes place by an iterative process, starting from a position wherein one side plane of the pyramid-shaped SPM probe interacts with the sample tip. By controlled consecutive scans in two orthogonal directions, the SPM probe tip approaches and finally reaches a position wherein a tip area of the probe interacts with the sample tip's apex region.