KLA tool talk—May 25

Complete system profilometry: A tale of two tools?

Date: Thursday, May 25, 2023
Location: 12-0168 (MIT.nano basement)
Time: 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. ET
Lunch will be provided.

>>Register for this talk

Abstract

Material science and engineering of nano devices increasingly requires a variety of techniques to characterize the structural, optical, and electrical properties of new devices or materials. A deep understanding of the individual layers’ properties used to produce polymer membranes, MEMS, optical and photonic materials, medical semiconductors, and microfluidic devices, is frequently required. Often the processes used to create these systems involve multiple steps, with each contributing a single layer that requires an accurate characterization of the material properties. Therefore, having equipment capable of precisely and quickly determining these properties is important to the metrology and material science communities.

The challenge of measuring the properties of these layers lies in the variety of materials used and the time required to accurately characterize each layer. However, continuing advancements in the techniques used to study these layers allows for some devices to measure a larger breadth of materials than previously measurable. For instance, new stylus profilometers are capable of characterizing relatively soft materials that previously would have been damaged by contact measurements, and new optical profilometers have achieved a high level of accuracy and precision making them a competitive and often faster option for characterizing surface properties of many materials and device structures.

In this talk, KLA representatives will discuss several conventionally challenging metrology applications and recent developments in profilometry and thin film characterization. They will show how the Profilm3D optical profiler, the Tencor series of stylus profilers, and the Filmetrics thin film reflectance systems can be used together to determine size, dimensionality, surface roughness, layer thickness, and the optical properties of many systems. Accurate, effective, and high throughput characterization remains a lofty goal for many processes and fields of research. The KLA series of profilers and thin film reflectometers offer a convenient and trusted solution for metrology problems at almost every size scale.