Displacement current sensor for contact and intermittent contact scanning capacitance microscopy

In this study a displacement current capacitance sensor (DCCS) for scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM) is introduced. It can be used for both intermittent contact (IC) and contact-SCM operation. Based on I/V conversion and subsequent lock-in amplification a displacement current can be detected and used as a measure for dopant concentration. Therefore a periodic variation of the AFM tip substrate capacitance is required. This can be achieved either by a periodic tip oscillation (IC-SCM) or an applied AC voltage between tip and sample (contact-SCM). The advantage of the DCCS is the linearity, which makes it possible to detect absolute dopant concentrations.