Groove depth measurements on roughness reference standards of the Croatian National Laboratory for Length (LFSB)

Abstract

In the Laboratory for Precise Measurements of Length, LFSB, which is now the Croatian National Laboratory for Length, unique roughness reference standards were developed in the year 1986. Because of the world-class quality of those standards and their measuring features, the same were sold in several European countries, and today they, among others, are used as roughness reference standards in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. However, especially in the last decade, there was significant progress in the field of nanotechnology that led to the development of new measuring equipment. The above-mentioned standards due to their size, production technology and measuring features cannot fully meet metrological requirements in the field of nanometrology, i.e. they are not compatible with scanning probe microscopes. Therefore, it was decided to search for possible limitations in the procedure of groove depth measurements on the LFSB standards. In order to include as many measuring devices as possible, i.e. measurement methods, in this research, in 2008 the LFSB launched EURAMET Project 1012 ‘Limitations of methods for measuring the depth of the groove’ in collaboration with national metrology institutes of Italy and Egypt. In this paper the results of measurements performed within the project are presented, and based on the obtained results, the advantages and limitations of the LFSB standards have been discussed, with recommendations for their improvement.