Scanning probe microscope dimensional metrology at NIST

Abstract

Scanning probe microscope (SPM) dimensional metrology efforts at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are reviewed in this paper. The main SPM instruments for realizing the International System of Units (SI) are the Molecular Measuring Machine, the calibrated atomic force microscope and the critical dimension atomic force microscope. These are optimized for long-distance measurements, three-dimensional measurements over conventional SPM distances and critical dimension or linewidth measurements, respectively. 10 mm distances have been measured with the relative standard uncertainty, uc, of 1.5 × 10−5; step heights at the 100 nm scale have been measured with the relative uc of 2.5 × 10−3 and sub-micrometer linewidths have been measured with uc = 0.8 nm.