Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2025

Development of reference samples for calibrating resistance and current measurements in Conductive probe Atomic Force Microscopy

Résumé

As technological progress continue to push back the limits of device manufacturing to incredibly small scales, a commensurate development of measurement tools and methods is inevitable. Conductive probe atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) is a scanning probe microscopy technique widely used to measure currents and resistances at the nanoscale. Its popularity has recently increased due to the versatility of its applications in mainstream technologies such as memory, photovoltaics and semiconductors. Despite the considerable contributions of C-AFM to understanding nanomaterials and nanodevices’ properties, measurements have remained prone to numerous artifactsinducing factors and restricted to qualitative comparisons. With the aim at making CAFM measurements calibrated, reliable and comparable, we have recently developed the first standard reference sample for the calibration of the complete C-AFM measurement circuit over a resistance range of 9 decades, i.e. between 100 Ω and 100 GΩ. Measurement protocols using resistance mapping and current-versus-voltage (I-V) spectroscopic modes have also been drawn-up and the experimental, instrumental and environmental factors have been investigated to evaluate the complete C-AFM setup. We have shown that our developed multi-resistance widerange standard sample allows a universal calibration of C-AFM measurements applicable to all available systems and enables the calibration of C-AFM with a combined relative uncertainty (given at one standard deviation) lower than 2.5% for resistances ranging from 10 kΩ to 100 GΩ [1]. In this work, we present the development of a second design of reference sample enabling easier access and improved accuracy to C-AFM measurements of resistance lower than 100 kΩ and a resistance range expanded to 1 TΩ. This new reference sample has also been designed to calibrate the complete C-AFM setup for current measurements over a range from 10 fA to 10 µA. We have investigated the influence of the AFM probes (materials, wear …) on both resistance and current measurements and improved the calibration methods. In addition to this hybrid calibration kit for C-AFM, we have manufactured and tested a third design of reference sample to calibrate C-AFM for very high resistance values, i.e. in the 100 TΩ range. These recent developments pave the way for reliable quantitative measurements of resistances and currents at the nanoscale, which is expected to propel the understanding of the electrical properties of individual devices and components at the nanoscale.

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Dates et versions

hal-05023736 , version 1 (28-04-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-05023736 , version 1

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José A. Morán-Meza, Pascal Chrétien, François Piquemal, Frédéric Houzé, Christian Ulysse, et al.. Development of reference samples for calibrating resistance and current measurements in Conductive probe Atomic Force Microscopy. International Metrology Congress - CIM2025, Mar 2025, Lyon (FRANCE), France. ⟨hal-05023736⟩
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