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Tip abrasion is a critical issue particularly for high-speed atomic force microscopy (AFM). In this paper, a quantitative investigation on the tip abrasion of diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coated tips in a high-speed metrological large range AFM device has been detailed. Wear tests are conducted on four different surfaces made of silicon, niobium, aluminum and steel. During the tests, different scanning speeds up to 1 mm/s and different vertical load forces up to approximately 33.2 nN are applied. Various tip characterization techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and AFM tip characterizers have been jointly applied to measure the tip form change precisely. The experimental results show that tip form changes abruptly rather than progressively, particularly when structures with steep sidewalls were measured. This result indicates the increased tip breakage risk in high-speed AFM measurements. To understand the mechanism of tip breakage, tip-sample interaction is modelled, simulated and experimentally verified. The results indicate that the tip-sample interaction force increases dramatically in measurement scenarios of steep surfaces.

In recent years, DNA origami nanorulers for superresolution (SR) fluorescence microscopy have been developed from fundamental proof-of-principle experiments to commercially available test structures. The self-assembled nanostructures allow placing a defined number of fluorescent dye molecules in defined geometries in the nanometer range. Besides the unprecedented control over matter on the nanoscale, robust DNA origami nanorulers are reproducibly obtained in high yields. The distances between their fluorescent marks can be easily analysed yielding intermark distance histograms from many identical structures. Thus, DNA origami nanorulers have become excellent reference and training structures for superresolution microscopy. In this work, we go one step further and develop a calibration process for the measured distances between the fluorescent marks on DNA origami nanorulers. The superresolution technique DNA-PAINT is used to achieve nanometrological traceability of nanoruler distances following the guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement (GUM). We further show two examples how these nanorulers are used to evaluate the performance of TIRF microscopes that are capable of single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM).

Nanomechanical characterization of vertically aligned micro- and nanopillars plays an important role in quality control of pillar-based sensors and devices. A microelectromechanical system based scanning probe microscope (MEMS-SPM) has been developed for quantitative measurement of the bending stiffness of micro- and nanopillars with high aspect ratios. The MEMS-SPM exhibits large in-plane displacement with subnanometric resolution and medium probing force beyond 100 micro-Newtons. A proof-of-principle experimental setup using an MEMS-SPM prototype has been built to experimentally determine the in-plane bending stiffness of silicon nanopillars with an aspect ratio higher than 10. Comparison between the experimental results and the analytical and FEM evaluation has been demonstrated. Measurement uncertainty analysis indicates that this nano-bending system is able to determine the pillar bending stiffness with an uncertainty better than 5%, provided that the pillars&rsquo, stiffness is close to the suspending stiffness of the MEMS-SPM. The MEMS-SPM measurement setup is capable of on-chip quantitative nanomechanical characterization of pillar-like nano-objects fabricated out of different materials.

Calibration of magnification and nonlinearity of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is an essential task. In this paper, we proposed a new type of 1D grating sample fabricated by combining laser-focused atomic deposition and x-ray interference lithography as a lateral standard for calibrating SEMs. The calibrations of the grating pattern by a metrological large-range atomic force microscope indicate that the grating sample exhibits outstanding pattern uniformity that surpasses conventional samples fabricated by e-beam lithography: (1) the nonlinear deviation of the grating structures is below +/- 0.5 nm over a measurement range of 5 µm; (2) the maximal variation of the calibrated mean pitch values is lower than 0.01 nm at different locations randomly selected all over the pattern area. The proposed new sample is applied for accurately calibrating the magnification and nonlinearity of a commercial SEM, showing its advantages of easy-of-use and high accuracy. The influence of the defocus level of SEM on the calibration result is also demonstrated. This research offers a feasible solution for highly accurate SEM calibration needed for 3D nanometrology and hybrid metrology demanded in metrology of modern nanoelectronics devices and systems.

We report the initial results of a recent bilateral comparison of linewidth or critical dimension (CD) calibrations on photomask line features between two national metrology institutes (NMIs): the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) in Germany. For the comparison, a chrome on glass (CoG) photomask was used which has a layout of line features down to 100 nm nominal size. Different measurement methods were used at both institutes. These included: critical dimension atomic force microscopy (CD-AFM), CD scanning electron microscopy (CD-SEM) and ultraviolet (UV) transmission optical microscopy. The measurands are CD at 50 % height of the features as well as sidewall angle and line width roughness (LWR) of the features. On the isolated opaque features, we found agreement of the CD measurements at the 3 nm to 5 nm level on most features – usually within the combined expanded uncertainties of the measurements.

A novel optical critical dimension (CD) metrology tool equipped with a 193 nm laser source and a high numerical aperture objective (NA=0.9) is under development at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the National Metrology Institute of Germany. The CD tool is designed for characterization of photomasks up to 6-inch and offers "atwavelength" measurements for current and future 193 nm lithography. Design, construction and realisation of the CD metrology tool is presented in this paper. The illumination system, which employs a multi-mode DUV fiber to reduce the lateral coherence of the laser beam, is detailed with numerical simulation and experimental investigation. Combined with precision optical modelling, this optical CD tool will be applicable for quantitative determination of the microstructures on 32 nm node photomasks with uncertainty less than 10 nm.

We report on the traceable calibration of linewidth (CD) photomask standards which are used as reference standards for production masks of the 65 nm node. Two different types of masks with identical layout were produced and calibrated, namely a binary mask (CoG) and a half-tone phase shifting mask (193MoSi PSM). We will in particular describe the applied calibration procedures and cross-correlate the results from different high resolution metrology tools, like SEM, UV microscopy and AFM. The layout of the CD photomask standard contains isolated as well as dense line features in both tones with nominal CD down to 100 nm. Calibration of the standards was performed at PTB by UV microscopy and LV-SEM, supported by additional AFM measurements. For analysis of the measured high resolution microscopy images and the deduced profiles appropriate signal modeling was applied for every metrology tool, which allows a meaningful comparison of geometrical parameters of the measured calibration structures. By this approach, e.g. the deduced feature widths at the top of the structures and the widths at 50% height of the structures can be related to the measured edge angles. The linearity e. g. of the measured top CD on different type of structures on the CoG CD standard was determined to be below 5 nm down to line feature dimensions well below 200 nm.

A new deep UV transmission microscope for traceable micro- and nanometrology is currently being set up at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), the National Metrology Institute of Germany. The new microscope is especially designed to enable linewidth measurements of micro- and nanostructures with an unsurpassed absolute measurement uncertainty of down to 10 nm (95% confidence interval). The optical resolution is about 100 nm. The main field of this tool will be critical dimension (CD) metrology of photomasks used in optical lithography. In particular, this system offers the possibility of 'at-wavelength' metrology for the currently applied 193 nm lithography technology. The high lateral resolution will be attained by means of 193 nm excimer laser radiation for illumination in conjunction with a high-aperture objective (NA = 0.9). The illumination and imaging system will provide various imaging modalities, ranging from ordinary brightfield to specially structured illumination schemes. Traceability to the SI unit 'meter' will be accomplished by means of laser interferometry. The mechanical set-up is characterized by an ultra-stable bridge construction on a granite base and has been designed with special emphasis on realizing a positioning stability in the nanometer range. The instrument is being set up in the Clean Room Centre of the PTB and will be ready for operation in mid 2009. Simulation calculations, based on a rigorous optical modeling of the expected microscope images, are presented. These simulations are made for the important application of measuring Cr structures on quartz photomasks. Based on these simulations and on available data of the uncertainties of various experimental parameters?including instrument and sample parameters?expected uncertainty budgets for the measurement of the width of Cr lines on quartz substrates are estimated.