White light interferometry applications in nanometrology

Abstract

Precise three-dimensional (3D) information is demanded by many new industries such as: semiconductor, photonics, MEMS, communications, microprocessing etc. [1, 2]. The problem is to select the proper measurement methods for material characteristics in the measurement field, from the point of view of the measurement accuracy and errors that can appear [1, 4, 3, 5]. There are several optical 3D measurements approaches, e.g.: triangulation, grating projection with phase shift, moire with phase shift, confocal and (white light) interferometry (WLI) [2, 3]. They can measures: surface profile, roughness, step height, microstructure, and other surface parameters. The white light interferometers allows generally surface profiling with high accuracy with no phase ambiguity errors, making them more suitable for profiling stepped or discontinuous surfaces. WLI technique to determine the thickness of thin coating on reflective materials is very effective. One of the first techniques to utilize the short coherence of the white light source was the scanning interference microscope. There are on the market a variety of scanning white light interferometers. Measurement calibration is done using the short coherence feature of white light. Some of the presented applications in nanometrology are thin films thickness measurements of: carbons films on glass, metallic films on Silicon, ablated small holes diameter, and profiles of micro / nanostructure.