Nanoelectronics

News and Updates

Nanoscale Mechanical Characterization for Hybrid-Bonding-Ready Structures in Advanced Packaging

January 29, 2026

Since the first computers were developed, their performance has mainly depended on increasing the density of transistors on monolithic chips. However, as we

NIST Researchers Probe the Mass of the Electron Neutrino

September 29, 2025

Neutrinos are the lightest elementary particles in the universe. But exactly how much do they weigh? For three decades, physicists have sought answers to this

NIST Study Aims to Improve Utility of the Scanning Electron Microscope

April 25, 2025

Using an electron beam to image the tiniest of defects and patterns on microchips, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) has long been a mainstay of the

Events

Graphene molecular grid, graphene atomic structure concept, hexagonal geometric form, nanotechnology background 3d rendering. 2026 QMMS workshop

5th NIST Quantum Matters in Material Sciences (QMMS) Workshop

Wed, Feb 18 - Thu, Feb 19 2026

The 5th Quantum Matters in Materials Science (QMMS) workshop organized by the National Institute of Standards and

Projects and Programs

$Four examples of Transmission electron diffraction patterns obtained in a scanning electron microscope.$

Analytical Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy in a Scanning Electron Microscope (STEM-in-SEM)

Ongoing

Conventional transmission electron imaging does not necessarily show both strong contrast and high spatial resolution for nanomaterials or soft matter. This is particularly the case for isolated nanostructures or low- Z materials like polymers or biomaterials. For example, consider structures in the

Designing Advanced Scanning Probe Microscopy Instruments

Ongoing

SPM is a general acronym for various probe instruments. The "P" in SPM stands for various types of probe measurements, such as capacitance (C), force (F), tunneling (T), etc. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM), including custom designs at the CNST, uses the quantum mechanical principle of

Designing the Nanoworld: Nanostructure, Nanodevices, and Nano-optics

Ongoing

Developing and exploiting nanodevices for quantum and nanotechnologies requires nanoscale and atomic scale modeling of ultrasmall structures, devices, their operation, and their response to probes. Key challenges of understanding physics at the quantum/classical interface and measurement at the

Dynamic EUV Imaging and Spectroscopy for Microelectronics

Ongoing

Collaborations with industry leaders have led us to develop new measurement techniques to improve our understanding thermal transport, spin transport, and nanoscopic (and interfacial) material properties in active device structures. Such capability requires the ability to measure these properties at

Publications

Scanned Squid Microscope with High-speed Electrical Connectivity

January 26, 2026

Author(s)

Ian Haygood, Bochao Xu, John Biesecker, Michael Schneider

We report on a cryogen-free scanned SQUID microscope operating at 4 K, with the capability of up to 40 RF (40 GHz) connections to a device under test. The

GRANAD - Simulating GRAphene nanoflakes with ADatoms

August 26, 2025

Author(s)

David Dams, Miriam Kosik, Marvin Muller, Abhishek Ghosh, Antton Babaze, Julia Szczuczko, Garnett Bryant, Andres Ayuela, Carsten Rockstuhl, Marta Pelc, Karolina Slowik

GRANAD is a new program based on the tight-binding approximation to simulate optoelectronic properties of graphene nanoflakes and Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH)

Large Area Real-Space Crystallography and Thickness Determination of Mesoscopic Semiconductor Membranes Using Zone Axis Patterns, Cold Field-Emission SEM/STEM, and Analytical S/TEM

July 25, 2025

Author(s)

Vladimir Oleshko, Glenn Holland, Daron Westly, John Villarrubia

Structural and dimensional characterization of layered structures in semiconductors is increasingly important for microelectronics manufacturing because of the

Multi-technique reference measurement of critical dimension and shape for model validation in scanning electron microscopy

April 22, 2025

Author(s)

Wataru Yamane, Daron Westly, Glenn Holland, Yu Yamazawa, Naoto Ito, Andras Vladar, John Villarrubia

In semiconductor device manufacturing, 3D structure measurements of newly complex devices would be valuable alongside conventional scanning electron microscopy

Software

MOSAIC

MOSAIC is a modular single-molecule analysis toolbox to decode multi-state single-molecule and nanopore time-series data. Read the documentation for additional

Tools and Instruments

Precision Imaging Facility

The Precision Imaging Facility (PIF) is a cooperative research facility at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) dedicated to the