Profile Uniformity of Overlapped Oxide Dots Induced by Atomic Force Microscopy

The technique for assembling a uniform oxide line by overlapping a series of nanosized oxide dots induced by atomic force microscopy is analytically and experimentally investigated. In addition to the normal continuous (static) pulses, the oxide growth rates under various discontinuous (modulated) pluses are studied to quantify the overlapping effect under multiple pulses used by the assembling technique. In the analysis of the assembling technique, the superposition principle is used to predict the assembled profiles and to define the uniformity criteria. Experiments have been performed to demonstrate the analytical prediction, including the threshold or minimum pitch for forming uniform lines, and the onset pitch for the overlapping effect to be considered. Indeed, by following the uniformity criteria developed, uniform and reliable oxide lines can be obtained by overlapping oxide dots.