Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Koichiro Hori

Masahiro Sekine

Junji Kobayashi

Hiroshi Kurokawa

Nobuyoshi Hattori

Naohiko Fujino

Masashi Ohmori

Osamu Wada

Isamu Karino

Kazuo Kuramoto

Fusami Soeda

Yoshitsugu Nakagawa

Method for detecting and examining a slightly irregular surface state is provided which includes the steps of: illuminating a surface of a sample with light beam for detecting the slightly irregular surface state; observing a variation of the light beam occurring due to the slightly irregular surface state to specify the location of the slightly irregular surface state in an x-y plane of the sample; making the location of a probe needle of a scanning probe microscope and the location of the slightly irregular surface state on the sample coincide with each other; and measuring a three-dimensional image of the slightly irregular surface state by means of the scanning probe microscope. The scanning probe microscope for use in the aforementioned method and a method for fabricating a semiconductor device or a liquid crystal display device which utilizes the aforementioned method are also provided.

Method for detecting and examining slightly irregular surface states,

Growing community of inventors

Itami, Japan

Koichiro Hori