Method and apparatus of scanning a sample using a scanning probe microscope

1. A method of scanning a sample with a scanning probe microscope (SPM) having a probe, the method comprising:

scanning a surface of the sample to obtain data corresponding to the surface, the scanning step characterized by at least one scan parameter;

substantially automatically identifying a transition in the surface along a scan line during the scanning step;

stopping the scanning step along the scan line based on the identified transition:

re-scanning a region of the sample along the scan line associated with the identified transition before continuing the scanning step along the scan line so as to image the sample surface; and

further comprising amending at least a portion of the data obtained from the scanning step with data obtained from the re-scanning step.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the amending step includes at least one of replacing the data and augmenting the data so as to substantially eliminate notching.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least a portion corresponds to a location of the identified transition.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying step occurs during the scanning step.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the identifying step includes computing a slope of the sample surface using the data.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the slope is computed during the scanning step.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the identifying step includes determining a change in the slope.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transition is defined by a sidewall, and the re-scanning step includes withdrawing the probe from the sidewall a selected amount.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the selected amount is less than about 10 nm.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one scan parameter is at least one of a rate of the scanning step and a direction of the scanning step.

11. A method of scanning a sample with a scanning probe microscope (SPM) having a probe, the method comprising:

scanning a surface of the sample to obtain data corresponding to the surface, the scanning step characterized by at least one scan parameter;

substantially automatically identifying a transition in the surface along a scan line during the scanning step;

stopping the scanning step along the scan line based on the identified transition; and

re-scanning a region of the sample along the scan line associated with the identified transition before continuing the scanning step along the scan line so as to image the sample surface, wherein the transition corresponds to a flat-to-sidewall region of the sample.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the flat-to-sidewall region is defined by a semiconductor structure.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the at least one scan parameter corresponds to AFM operation in CD mode.

14. The method of claim 11 , wherein the method scans a semiconductor at an SPM scan velocity of at least about 100 nm/sec.

15. A method of scanning a sample with a scanning probe microscope (SPM) having a probe, the method comprising:

scanning a surface of the sample to obtain data corresponding to the surface., the scanning step characterized by at least one scan parameter;

substantially automatically identifying a transition in the surface along a scan line during the scanning step;

stopping the scanning step along the scan line based on the identified transition; and

re-scanning a region of the sample along the scan line associated with the identified transition before continuing the scanning step along the scan line so as to image the sample surface,

wherein the re-scanning step includes changing the at least one scan parameter,

wherein the at least one scan parameter includes a scan rate, and the changing step includes reducing the scan rate.

16. A scanning probe microscope (SPM) comprising:

a scanner that provides relative motion between a probe of the SPM and a sample, wherein the probe interacts with the sample at a transition along a scan line;

wherein the SPM identifies the transition and in response causes the scanner to re-scan the transition so as to image the sample surface before continuing to scan the sample along the scan line; and

further comprising a controller and a computational device, wherein the controller generates control signals indicative of the interaction between the probe and the sample, and wherein the computational device identifies the transition by determining a slope of sample surface data produced based on the control signals.

17. The scanning probe microscope of claim 16 , wherein the computational device identifies the transition by computing a change in the slope.

18. The scanning probe microscope of claim 16 , wherein the computational device amends the sample surface data using re-scan data produced upon re-scanning the transition.

19. The scanning probe microscope of claim 18 , wherein the computational device either augments or replaces the sample surface data.