Infinitesima participated in SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference between 21st - 25th February 2021, and was involved in several research papers.
www.spie.org/conferences-and-exhibitions/advanced-lithography
SPIE Advanced Lithography was a digital forum this year. Infinitesima have a joint paper with imec, titled:
‘An innovative probe microscopy solution for measuring conductivity profiles in 3-dimensions’
In the paper we describe the RPM 3D, a modified version of the Rapid Probe Microscope (RPM). The RPM 3D has been enhanced to enable automated tomography applications including new characterisation modes such as conductivity. The program will initially focus on the optimisation and automation of a method that sequentially images the structure surface using one probe and then uses a much harder diamond probe to accurately remove layers. This enables the build up of a 3D probe microscope image vertically through the structure of interest. This technique is currently performed manually, but the time this takes limits its application. The RPM 3D has capability to automatically switch between different probes whilst retaining positional accuracy. The automation of this technique will enable much faster cycles of learning in the development of 3D device structures, hence helping accelerate the introduction of these new processes and, in the future, provide production process control.
You can also check out our SPIE 2021 presentation & paper here.
Other SPIE 2021 papers that reference the RPM technology:
High volume manufacturing metrology needs at and beyond the 5 nm node
Enabling non-actinic EUV mask inspection using carbon nanotube pellicle
