Semiconductor device inspecting method using conducting AFM

摘要

A semiconductor device inspecting method is provided which can detect electric faults in an in-line inspection. The positive electrode of a variable DC power supply (2) is connected to the back or a peripheral portion of a semiconductor substrate (4) and the negative electrode of the variable DC power supply (2) is connected to a conductive cantilever (3). A scan is performed with a given forward bias voltage (e.g. 1.0 V) applied between the cantilever (3) and the semiconductor substrate (4) and with the cantilever (3) in contact with a target contact plug (9). The current flowing through the cantilever (3) is then monitored with an ammeter (1) to obtain a current characteristic of each contact plug, making it possible to detect conduction faults which cannot be detected by simply observing the configuration.