Scientific Achievement
Industrial users at the Molecular Foundry have created the highest resolution calibration tool with feature sizes of 1.5 nanometers, a breakthrough that won an R&D100 Award.
Significance and Impact
Metrology tools are used to characterize advanced imaging systems from interferometers to electron microscopes.
Research Details
- To ensure the quality and consistency of substrates, wafer manufacturers in the semiconductor industry rely on precise metrology tools to control the quality of their materials.
- The characterization of metrology systems requires test patterns at a scale about ten times smaller than the measured features.
- aBeam Technologies, using the Molecular Foundry, ALS, APS, and NSLS II, developed the finest metrology tool in the world, utilizing a fabricated pattern with line widths down to 1.5 nanometers.
- The binary pseudorandom structure was produced by depositing a multilayer of two alternating materials using magnetron sputter deposition and then sectioning the stack
