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Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are integrally-fabricated hybrids of micromechanical and microelectronic elements which serve together as sensors, actuators, or both. While there are proprietary issues in MEMS products currently in or near commercial
Jun-Feng Song, F Rudder, Theodore V. Vorburger, J Smith
National and international comparisons in Rockwell hardness tests show significant differences. Uncertainties in the geometry of the Rockwell diamond indenters are largely responsible for these differences. By using a stylus instrument, with a series of
Textured laps can be created by slumping uniform thin films of appropriate materials over textured substrates that have been generated to the required figure. The film can easily be replaced and the lap shape is invariant since the lap substrate never
A new process for stabilizing the frequency of commercially available 543 nm He-Ne lasers is described. The stabilization method is based on anomalous dispersion of the gain medium. A total of four green lasers have been stabilized - two at the National
Reference Material (RM) 8090 is intended primarily for use in calibrating the magnification scale of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) over a wide range of magnifications, from less than 100X to greater than 300,000X. RM 8090 contains structures in both
There is a pressing need in the semiconductor industry to determine the dimensions of lithographically produced features on wafers and masks down to the l0?nm level of accuracy. Such measurements involve the accurate location of line edges, the subtraction
The ultimate purpose of the photomask in IC manufacture is to define the image to be printed on a silicon wafer. Of the many factors which affect this aerial image in the wafer stepper, some are properties of the stepper projection system and some are
By scanning a slightly tilted, smooth surface with an atomic force microscope (AFM), it is possible to obtain hysteresis loops which contain information on the nonlinearity and hysteresis in the z axis of the AFM''s piezoelectric actuator. A 15% variation
The spatial resolution, sensitivity, and accuracy required for electrical characterization of device structures in the semiconductor industry suggest that scanned probe microscopy (SPM) tools may offer an alternative to existing measurement techniques. Due
R Gupta, Robert Celotta, Zeina J. Kubarych, J Mcclelland
Fabrication of a two-dimensional array of nanometer-scale chromium features on a silicon substrate by laser-focused atomic deposition is described. Features 13? 1 nm high and having a full-width at half maximum of 80? 10 nm are fabricated in a square array
Daniel S. Sawyer, Steven D. Phillips, Gregory W. Caskey, Bruce R. Borchardt, David E. Ward, P Snoots
This document is the user manual for the NIST SRM 9983 High Rigidity Ball Bar Stand. The manual contains a list of the components that are included as part of the unit. Complete instructions for setting up and assembling the stand to support a ball bar for
Gage blocks are the primary method used by industry to standardize the measurement of dimension. This work discusses every aspect of gage block calibration, including definitions, characteristics of gage blocks, calibration by interferometry and mechanical
J Huennekens, A Allegrini, Zeina J. Kubarych, R Sagle, R K. Namiotka
Populations of excited atoms that all have the same z component of velocity can be produced by pumping a vapor with a narrow-band laser. This velocity-selected population is then thermalized by velocity-changing collisions. However, in a pure vapor, even
A new NIST SEM magnification calibration standard has been fabricated and characterized in production prototype form. The SRM 2090A samples contain structures ranging in pitch from 3000 um to 0.2 um and are useful at both high and low accelerating voltages
Lateral dopant profiling of cleaved, passivated abrupt GaAs pn junctions using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy is demonstrated both in ultrahigh vacuum and air. A combination of forward-and reverse-bias imaging and position-dependent tunneling
A novel design for an ultraviolet critical dimension measurement transmission microscope utilizing the Stewart platform as the rigid main structure has been implemented. This new design shows improved vibration characteristics and is able to accommodate
Richard M. Silver, James E. Potzick, Robert D. Larrabee
The relative misalignment of features produced by different mask levels (i.e., overlay error) is projected to become an increasingly important problem to the semiconductor industry as the size of the critical features continues to decrease. In response to
J Schneir, T Mcwaid, Ronald G. Dixson, V W. Tsai, John S. Villarrubia, Edwin R. Williams, E Fu
NIST personnel visited 23 IC manufacturing companies and equipment suppliers during 1994 to determine semiconductor industry needs for scanned probe metrology. NIST has initiated projects addressing some of the needs identified. When complete, these
Every artifact measurement standard has some uncertainty associated with its calibration, and the NIST Photomask Linewidth Standards are no exception. This uncertainty is caused by a combination of those factors which influence the calibration measurement
Sinusoidal surfaces can be used as material standards to help calibrate instruments that measure the angular distribution of the intensity of light scattered by arbitrary surfaces, because the power in the diffraction peaks varies over several orders of
In a phase measuring interferometer (PMI), the interference pattern is focused on a charge coupled device (CCD) detector array and data points are sampled at the corresponding locations. In most commercially available systems, a zoom lens forms part of the
Amy Singer, J Land, Steven D. Phillips, Daniel S. Sawyer, Bruce R. Borchardt, Gregory W. Caskey, D Ward, P Snoots, B Faust
The Interim Testing Artifact (ITA) is designed to quickly test CMMs for performance problems so that they can be repaired before significant numbers of good parts are erroneously rejected (or bad parts accepted) by the CMM. Frequent testing using the ITA
Jun-Feng Song, F Rudder, Theodore V. Vorburger, A Hartman, Brian R. Scace, J Smith
Microform calibrations include the measurement of complex profile forms and position errors of micrometer scale in combination with the measurement of deviations from a specified profile and surface texture of profile segments. Tolerances on the profile
Steven D. Phillips, Bruce R. Borchardt, William T. Estler
This paper examines the measurement uncertainty of small circular features as a function of the sampling strategy, i.e., the number and distribution of measurement points. Specifically, we examine measuring a circular feature using a three-point sampling
Current Rockwell C hardness scales (HRC) are unified by performance comparisons. Unless a reliable metrology approach is used for the direct verification of standard hardness machines and diamond indenters, the unified hardness scale may exhibit a