Partnership improves electron scope's vision

17 Jun 2002

A new scanning electron microscope stage, jointly developed by NIST, a small Massachusetts firm and SEMATECH, will permit chip makers and other SEM usersto cover nearly all angles when examining their samples. To be commercialized by E. Fjeld Co. (North Billerica, MA) maker of custom accessories for electronmicroscopes, the new stage doubles the viewing range of typical SEMs and increases the tilt to better than 90 degrees from the horizontal, as compared to the current60 degrees. Such improved performance capabilities are expected to increase the utility of SEMs as measurement and research tools.

Retrofitted on the SEM that NIST uses for dimensional measurements, the stage enables high-resolution, cross-sectional images of films and substrates. The advancealso benefits measurements of minimum feature sizes on integrated circuits and the photomasks used to make them.