To achieve large area AFM scans in millimeter range without stitching procedures a Nanometer Coordinate Measuring Machine(NCMM) is under development. We have combined a specially manufactured UltraObjective AFM head of S.I.S. GmbH with the first prototype of an ultra precise nanometer positioning system of SIOS Messtechnik GmbH in cooperation with the Technical University Ilmenau. That means having a sensor system that delivers x-, y- and z-position with interferometer accuracy of almost 1nm and z-probing with resolution of an Atomic Force Microscope. Overall we are building a measuring instrument with a working volume of at least 20mm x 20mm x 5mm without leaving nanometer accuracy. Last year we presented the first AFM measurements of the NCMM with scan lengths up to 500 microns. After all this is 5 times more than conventional SPMs can achieve, but it is only the first step on the way to advanced characterization techniques in the field of nanometrology. The calibration of our NCMM has been improved and AFM scans with millimeter ranges are performed. The progress made will be shown in this paper. It also will present observed obstacles regarding to the endeavors of developing advanced metrology techniques for the tremendously increasing field of nanometrology. For example measuring speed, amount of measuring data and suitable measurement strategies have to be discussed.
With the increasing amount of applications in the field of nanotechnology there is a growing demand for a detailed inspection of surface areas of millimeter sizes. The geometry of silicon micro structures is as well of interest as the detection and shape characterization of defects on optical surfaces. It is state of the art to be able to measure topographies within 2 1/2 D with nanometer resolution by using scanning probe microscopes. So far they are usually restricted to area sizes of 100 square microns. Furthermore it is state of the art to build positioning systems covering several millimeters and resolving nanometers. Those systems are restricted in their positioning uncertainty, which can be estimated within several ten nanometers.
Very few research labs and one or two industrial sites are involved in developments and investigations on combining large area positioning systems with atomic force probe heads. Systems being able to cover 6 decades (mm...nm) are highly sensitive to the choice of control parameters. We are investigating a prototype of such a system employing a calibration standard representing a lattice with 1 micron pitch width. Some "real life" semi conductor structures have been measured as well. Up to now the response of atomic force probe heads to the scanning motion of the table is not fully understood.
The talk will reveal obstacles, their overcoming, and it will probe that realizing large area topography measurements with high resolution is possible. Futhermore, the need of strategies of selecting areas such that the amount of data can be handled in a reasonable way will be shown.
Most probably scanning probe microscopy will play a key role in surface characterization while entering the nanotechnology era. Today, however, nearly all SPMs have only scan ranges up to 100 micrometers x 100 micrometers . The production of microsystems with nano-structured elements requires measuring instruments with extremely high resolutions and working areas in millimeter range. Therefore, a Nanometer Coordinate Measuring Machine (NCMM) with a working volume of at least 10 x 10 x 5 mm3 will be developed. We have to make great demands on the positioning system in this case, especially the design of the control algorithms is very critical. An electromechanical model of the xyz-positioning system shall support the optimization of the controllers. This paper describes some problems of the development of a NCMM. First simulation results will be discussed in short. Results of measuring the dynamic behaviour of the xyz-positioning system describe the observed difficulties of positioning in different orders of magnitude (nm - micrometers - mm).
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