Nanometrology Using a Quasiperiodic Pattern Diffraction Optical Ruler

This paper presents a nanometrology optical ruler imaging system to enable rapid wafer-scale nanometrology, particularly for scanning probe microscopes. The ruler is generated by the diffraction of a 10 -8 stabilized laser by a metal thin-film pattern. Microfabrication techniques create a high-count...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of microelectromechanical systems 2010-08, Vol.19 (4), p.865-870
Main Authors: Yoshimizu, N, Lal, A, Pollock, C R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Apertures
Applied sciences
Arrays
Diffraction patterns
Errors
Exact sciences and technology
Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy
Laser stability
Mathematical models
Mechanical engineering. Machine design
Mechanical instruments, equipment and techniques
Microelectromechanical systems
Micromechanical devices and systems
Nanometrology
Nanostructure
Nanotechnology
Optical arrays
optical data processing
Optical diffraction
Optical films
Optical imaging
Optical microscopy
Physics
Pixel
Pixels
position measurement
Precision engineering, watch making
Probes
Transistors
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Summary:This paper presents a nanometrology optical ruler imaging system to enable rapid wafer-scale nanometrology, particularly for scanning probe microscopes. The ruler is generated by the diffraction of a 10 -8 stabilized laser by a metal thin-film pattern. Microfabrication techniques create a high-count quasiperiodic aperture array in the film which generates a translationally asymmetric feature-dense optical diffraction pattern well suited for the nanometrology application. An imager array samples the optical ruler and calculates its position by Fourier transform cross-correlation methods. Numerically, it is found that improving the imager by pixel count and size can reduce positioning errors down to 1/120th of the pixel size, after which further improvements yield no reduction in error. Experiments using a modest complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor imager demonstrate a positioning accuracy of 1/124th of the pixel size, or 29 nm. This system will enable high-precision high-throughput metrology and fabrication of nano- and microelectromechanical systems.
ISSN:1057-7157
1941-0158
DOI:10.1109/JMEMS.2010.2047377