INTEGRATED MICROCOLUMN AND SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPE ARRAYS

摘要

An apparatus for surface inspection and processing of a wafer (12) includes a microcolumn (14) and an associated scanning probe microscope (16). The microcolumn enables high speed scanning of the wafer at a relatively high resolution, while the scanning probe microscope provides atomic resolution o f highly localized areas of the wafer. The microcolumn and scanning probe microscope can be partially fabricated out of the same substrate. Additionally, the microcolumn and scanning probe microscope can be a portion of an array of microcolumns and/or scanning probe microscopes. The apparatus may be used for imaging, lithography and spectroscopy.