Thin Film Thickness Measurement Research Articles

Design of a high-performance surface plasmon resonance device for effective measurement of thin liquid film thickness

Design of a high-performance surface plasmon resonance device for effective measurement of thin liquid film thickness

Tin Lodide Thin Films Growth via Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition and its Optimization Using V–I Probe Impedance Analyser for Optoelectronic Applications

AbstractTin(ii) iodide (SnI2) faces significant challenges in photodetector applications, primarily due to its sensitivity to moisture and degradation over time. Achieving uniform, high‐quality films with low impurity and defect levels is also a challenge. Potential solutions include advanced deposition techniques to improve film quality and stability, surface passivation and encapsulation, doping and alloying. In this study, SnI2 thin films have been deposited for the first time using plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) technique to the best of our knowledge. Process parameters like deposition pressure and RF‐power have been optimised via non‐intrusive in‐situ V−I probe impedance analyser. SnI2 thin films have been deposited on glass & transparent conducting oxide (TCO) and p‐Si wafer at various RF‐power to make SnI2/p‐Si heterojunction followed by metallization to make Ag/SnI2/p‐Si/Ag heterojunction photodetector. Characterization techniques like thin film thickness measurement, UV‐Vis‐NIR spectroscopy, Photoluminescence spectroscopy, glancing incidence x‐ray diffraction (GIXRD), SEM and I−V measurements were carried out to study its optical, structural and electronic properties. Fabricated devices, Ag/SnI2/p‐Si/Ag heterojunction photodiode exhibits best critical performance for the film deposited at 150 W having rectifying ratio of 6.9×104 at 1.0 V and photo‐sensitivity of 1.6×104 at 100 mW/cm2 light intensity.

A Simple and Accurate Approach for Thickness Measurement of Particles and Thin Films Using SEM-EDS

A Simple and Accurate Approach for Thickness Measurement of Particles and Thin Films Using SEM-EDS

A novel laser interferometric method for thin film thickness measurement in gas–liquid intermittent flow

Abstract In horizontal intermittent flow, the long bubbles move toward the center of the pipe due to inertia, forming the thin liquid film above the long bubbles. Accurate measurement of the liquid film thickness is crucial for heat and mass transfer. In this paper, laser interferometric technology is innovatively introduced to measure the film thickness of the intermittent flow, and the thin liquid film is detected with a resolution of 100 nm. Considering the curvature of the circular pipe wall, which leads to divergent reflected light, the effect of the pipe wall on the interference pattern is explored by the ray tracing technique. A two-dimensional interpolation phase retrieval algorithm based on light intensity is proposed to reconstruct the thickness of the liquid film, and the average error is less than 1.86%. Benefiting from the exceptionally high resolution, research is conducted on the thin liquid film at the top of the horizontal intermittent flow, revealing its dependence on the sub-regimes and gas–liquid velocities.

Thickness measurement of thin films using atomic force microscopy based scratching

Thin-film thickness measurements using atomic force microscopy (AFM) comprise two steps: 1. AFM scratching in order to produce an exposed film edge, and 2. subsequent AFM measurement of the corresponding step height across the exposed edge. Although the technique is known, many open questions have limited its wider applications. In order to clarify the open questions, here we first demonstrate how to determine the normal force applied during the scratching in contact mode needed to completely remove films from substrates. In order to determine film thickness from processed AFM images, we discuss two procedures based on the histogram method and polynomial step-function fitting. Mechanisms of the scratching process are elucidated by the analysis of lateral forces and their enhancement during the film peeling. Phase maps of scratched domains recorded in amplitude modulation AFM (tapping) mode display a clear contrast compared to pristine films. Therefore, we suggest their utilization as simple indicators of spatial domains with completely removed films. As an example, here the measurements were done on polymer films fabricated by layer-by-layer deposition of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes composed of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate), while the applicability of the presented method on other materials is discussed in detail.

Metasurface array for single-shot spectroscopic ellipsometry

Spectroscopic ellipsometry is a potent method that is widely adopted for the measurement of thin film thickness and refractive index. Most conventional ellipsometers utilize mechanically rotating polarizers and grating-based spectrometers for spectropolarimetric detection. Here, we demonstrated a compact metasurface array-based spectroscopic ellipsometry system that allows single-shot spectropolarimetric detection and accurate determination of thin film properties without any mechanical movement. The silicon-based metasurface array with a highly anisotropic and diverse spectral response is combined with iterative optimization to reconstruct the full Stokes polarization spectrum of the light reflected by the thin film with high fidelity. Subsequently, the film thickness and refractive index can be determined by fitting the measurement results to a proper material model with high accuracy. Our approach opens up a new pathway towards a compact and robust spectroscopic ellipsometry system for the high throughput measurement of thin film properties.

Large-Area Thickness Measurement of Transparent Films Based on a Multichannel Spectral Interference Sensor

Thickness measurement of thin films is essential for quality control in the manufacturing process of the semiconductor and display industries. Real-time monitoring of film thickness during production is an urgent technical problem to be solved. In this study, a method for large-area thickness measurement of transparent films based on a multichannel spectral interference sensor is proposed. The sensor simultaneously acquires multichannel spectral interference signals through a combination of fan-out fiber optic bundles, detection probes, and an imaging spectrometer. The spectral data are calibrated and transformed into the wavenumber dimension, and then the power spectral density estimation method is used to demodulate the data frequency to swiftly derive the film thickness. The thickness measurement capacity of the proposed system is successfully validated on two standard film samples with a relative deviation of less than 0.38% and a relative standard deviation of less than 0.044%. The total spectral acquisition and calculation time for a single multichannel measurement was approximately 7.5 ms. The experimental results on polyimide films show that the measurement efficiency of the system is at least 4 times higher than that of the traditional system, indicating the potential of the multichannel spectral interference sensor for online monitoring in film production.

Non-Destructive Thin Film Thickness Measurement based on Coplanar Capacitive Sensor and Printed Circuit Board Platform

This paper presents a compact design of a coplanar capacitive sensor based on a printed circuit board (PCB) to apply in non-contact and non-destructive thin film thickness measurement. The capacitive sensor design is structured by two coplanar capacitors, including a reference coplanar capacitor and a sensing coplanar capacitor. Using this structure, the thin film thickness could be estimated through the imbalance voltage produced between the two signals from the reference capacitor and sensing capacitor. The size of the proposed sensor is 9.99 × 9.99 mm and the capacitor electrodes structured by shapes of spiral, interdigital, and round are studied and optimized. Those electrode structures have been modelled and simulated and the simulation results reveal that the spiral structure gives the best performance. The experiment was conducted using plastic thin films with thickness ranging from 10 to 230 µm and dielectric constants ranging from 1.375 to 3.19 to investigate the working principle of the sensor. Experiment results show the approximate linearity of the output voltage corresponding to the various thickness at measurement range from 0 to 90 µm. The sensitivity of the sensor is 13.5 and 29 mV/µm corresponding to the 1.375 and 3.19 dielectric constants of the thin films, respectively. The proposed coplanar capacitive sensor is fabricated based on the PCB platform and shows good performance with a minimum cost. The experiment results demonstrate that this sensor has a high potential to be applied in several biomedical and industrial thin film thickness measurement applications.

Thin liquid film thickness measurement using stepped-index-type optical fiber sensors

Thin liquid film thickness measurement using stepped-index-type optical fiber sensors

Micro X-ray fluorescence device based on monocapillary ellipsoidal lens for thin film thickness measurement

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is a crucial non-destructive technique for determining the thickness of thin films or coating materials to ensure their optimal performance. In order to further expand the application of XRF in thin film thickness analysis, we have developed an inner-wall coated elliptical monocapillary X-ray lens (EMXRL), which has a larger acceptance angle and higher utilization efficiency for light sources compared to traditional inner-wall uncoated EMXRL. In addition, we have built a laboratory micro-X-ray fluorescence (Micro-XRF) thickness measurement device based on coated EMXRL. Compared to common XRF devices, it has a smaller X-ray spot size and higher intensity gain, resulting in smaller spatial resolution and higher detection efficiency in XRF thickness measurement applications. We established a standard curve in the range from 0.85μm to 56.5μm for measuring the thickness of Cu coating on silicon using this Micro-XRF device. The experimental results show that the micro-area thickness measurement device, based on the standard curve method, can measure the thickness of Cu coatings from 0.85μm to about 30.00μm with a relative deviation of about 3%. Within the thickness range from about 30.0μm to 56.5μm, the relative deviation of the measured thickness increased and was larger than 5%. This larger relative deviation mainly resulted from the greater absorption from the thicker coating. Furthermore, We used the device to perform mapping scans on scratched areas of Cu-plated circuit board to verify its usefulness. The results show that the device has the advantages of simplicity and speed, and has potential applications in fields such as semiconductors.

Newly Developed Method for Liquid Thin Film Thickness Measurement Using Optical Fiber–Based Reflective Probe

A new ray-tracing–based calibration method for an Optical-fiber-based Reflective Probe (ORP) was developed. This technique enables thickness measurement in micrometers in wavy thin liquid film flow, which is simpler and quicker than other liquid film measurements. First, the relationship between the film thickness and ORP signal was calculated through the ray-tracing simulator. The signal trend showed a steep rate of change within a few-hundred-micron thicknesses, thanks to the emission nature of the step index multimode fiber. The ray-tracing–based calibration was established using the calculated relationship. Second, the calibration method was validated under quiescent conditions. The calibrated ORP measured the thickness and then was compared to visualization. Good agreement was confirmed between the two results at a maximum difference of 20% under 1000 μm in thickness. Finally, thickness measurement for the wavy thin film flow was performed. Airflow (jG = 40 to 75 m/s) was introduced into the rectangle test section, and a small amount of tap water (Q = 30 to 90 mL/min) was injected into the channel plate. The difference in the measured thickness between ORP and high-speed visualization was around 20%. The effectiveness of the new calibration method and ORP measurement including its uncertainty will be discussed.

A method for measuring and calibrating the thickness of thin films based on infrared interference technology

Transparent thin films are critical industrial components widely used in advanced optics, microelectronics and materials science, among other relevant fields. The rapid and stable measurement of sub-micron industrial film thickness is of particular importance. In this study, a novel method based on the principles of infrared interference and laser profilometry is proposed to calculate the periodogram of the original spectrum and accurately extract the maximum frequency. In addition, a high-precision, compact and low-cost thin-film thickness measurement and calibration system is developed. This system achieves accurate measurement of single-layer film thickness and adapts to correct errors caused by slight tilt due to mechanical vibration or misalignment during film placement. Experimental data show that, compared to conventional infrared interference thickness measurement systems, the use of the proposed maximum frequency extraction algorithm improves measurement accuracy by approximately 90% and stability by approximately 70%. Furthermore, even when measuring the thickness of films with inclined components, the use of the constructed thin film thickness measurement and calibration system provides equivalent results.

Wide-Spectrum Ellipsometry Measurement Based on Two Parallel Channels

To solve the problem of a single light source, phase compensator, and detector, amongst others—which cannot meet the ellipsometry measurement requirements over a wide spectral range (from visible light (VIS) to short-wave infrared (SWIR) and even mid infrared (MIR; 400–3200 nm))—a wide-spectrum thin-film ellipsometry measurement solution based on two parallel channels was proposed. Full spectral coverage was achieved through a combination of the VIS-SWIR (400–2100 nm) and SWIR-MIR (2100–3200 nm) dual-band ellipsometry—that is, the ellipsometry measurements in the VIS-SWIR and SWIR-MIR bands were integrated in the same system. Consequently, the ellipsometry parameters for full spectral coverage could be obtained using a single measurement. An SiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> thin-film sample on a Si substrate of thickness 103.2 nm was used to evaluate the proposed ellipsometry system. The results showed that the thin-film thickness measurement accuracy was high (±0.5 nm in the range of 400–3200 nm), the thickness repeatability measurement accuracy was 0.03 nm, the refractive index repeatability measurement accuracy was 0.003, and the measurement time was approximately 0.5 s/λ, the proposed system having the advantages of high integration, simple operation, and high measurement speeds.

A Spectroscopic Reflectance-Based Low-Cost Thickness Measurement System for Thin Films: Development and Testing

The requirement for alternatives in roll-to-roll (R2R) processing to expand thin film inspection in wider substrates at lower costs and reduced dimensions, and the need to enable newer control feedback options for these types of processes, represents an opportunity to explore the applicability of newer reduced-size spectrometers sensors. This paper presents the hardware and software development of a novel low-cost spectroscopic reflectance system using two state-of-the-art sensors for thin film thickness measurements. The parameters to enable the thin film measurements using the proposed system are the light intensity for two LEDs, the microprocessor integration time for both sensors and the distance from the thin film standard to the device light channel slit for reflectance calculations. The proposed system can deliver better-fit errors compared with a HAL/DEUT light source using two methods: curve fitting and interference interval. By enabling the curve fitting method, the lowest root mean squared error (RMSE) obtained for the best combination of components was 0.022 and the lowest normalised mean squared error (MSE) was 0.054. The interference interval method showed an error of 0.09 when comparing the measured with the expected modelled value. The proof of concept in this research work enables the expansion of multi-sensor arrays for thin film thickness measurements and the potential application in moving environments.

Thickness and refractive index measurements of a thin-film using an artificial neural network algorithm

Thin-film thickness and refractive index measurements are important for quality control in many high-tech industrial manufacturing processes, such as the semiconductor, display, and battery. Many studies have been carried out to measure the thickness and refractive index of thin-films, and recently studies using an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm have also been conducted. However, strict evaluations of ANNs were not reported in all previous studies. In this study, a multilayer perceptron type of ANN algorithm for simultaneously analyzing the thickness and refractive index of a thin-film is designed and verified by using four thin-film certified reference materials (CRMs) being traceable to the length standard. According to the number of hidden layers and the number of nodes for each hidden layer, 12 multilayer perceptron type ANN algorithms were designed and trained with a theoretical dataset generated through optics theory based on multiple interferences. Subsequently, the interference spectra measured by the four CRMs were put into the 12 trained ANNs as input, and it was checked whether or not the output values were in good agreement with the corresponding certified values of both the thickness and refractive index. As a result, an ANN algorithm having two hidden layers with 100 nodes was selected as the final algorithm and an uncertainty evaluation was performed. Finally, the combined uncertainties for the thickness and refractive index were estimated to be 2.0 nm and 0.025 at a wavelength of 632.8 nm, respectively, as measured using a spectral reflectometer with the well-trained ANN algorithm.

The comparison of multi-stepping algorithms for real-time thickness measurement of transparent thin films using polarization settings

This paper presents the comparison of three-, four- and five-step techniques for measuring transparent thin-film thickness of and deposited on BK-7 substrates. The Sagnac interferometer was modified with phase shifting approach for the determination of thin-film thickness. The input light beam was split into reference and testing beams. Before the output light reaching the balanced photodetectors, the real-time signal detection was performed to obtain the output intensities of both beams using three-, four-, and five-polarization settings of an analyzer. The thicknesses could then be efficiently translated from the measured intensities. Thicknesses from three-, four- and five-stepping algorithms were compared with ones from the conventional FE-SEM measurement, and it was discovered that the former performed better with less errors. The findings show that the phase-shifting technique using three-polarization settings is more suitable for the thickness measurement of the transparent thin film.

Nondestructive Wafer Level MEMS Piezoelectric Device Thickness Detection.

This paper introduces a novel nondestructive wafer scale thin film thickness measurement method by detecting the reflected picosecond ultrasonic wave transmitting between different interfacial layers. Unlike other traditional approaches used for thickness inspection, this method is highly efficient in wafer scale, and even works for opaque material. As a demonstration, we took scandium doped aluminum nitride (AlScN) thin film and related piezoelectric stacking layers (e.g. Molybedenum/AlScN/Molybdenum) as the case study to explain the advantages of this approach. In our experiments, a laser with a wavelength of 515 nm was used to first measure the thickness of (1) a single Molybdenum (Mo) electrode layer in the range of 100-300 nm, and (2) a single AlScN piezoelectric layer in the range of 600-1000 nm. Then, (3) the combined stacking layers were measured. Finally, (4) the thickness of a standard piezoelectric composite structure (Mo/AlScN/Mo) was characterized based on the conclusions and derivation extracted from the aforementioned sets of experiments. This type of standard piezoelectric composite has been widely adopted in a variety of Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) devices such as the Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (PMUT), the Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator (FBAR), the Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) and more. A comparison between measurement data from both in-line and off-line (using Scanning Electron Microscope) methods was conducted. The result from such in situ 8-inch wafer scale measurements was in a good agreement with the SEM data.

Measurement of thin liquid film thickness in pipes based on optical interferometry

Measurement of thin liquid film thickness in pipes based on optical interferometry

Spectroscopic imaging ellipsometry for two-dimensional thin film thickness measurement using a digital light processing projector

An improved version of spectroscopic imaging ellipsometry is described for accurate reconstruction of two-dimensional thin film thickness. A digital light processing projector enables a selected area of the back focal plane of the objective lens to be illuminated so that the angle of incidence and the polarization state of the light source vary depending on the area of the back focal plane being illuminated. By combining multiple images of the object plane obtained at different polarization states, every pixel in the field of view has its own ellipsometric parameters; therefore a reconstruction of two-dimensional thin film thickness is possible. Because the proposed ellipsometry system has a co-axial optical structure in which the objective lens is arranged in the normal direction to the measurement target, the spatial resolution is improved due to the application of a high-magnitude objective lens. In addition, spectroscopic analysis can be conducted using a number of band-pass filters which each have a central wavelength. The effect of the proposed method on thin film thickness measurement was evaluated by comparing the experimental results with a topographic profile obtained using a commercial atomic force microscope.

A novel method to design and evaluate artificial neural network for thin film thickness measurement traceable to the length standard

The artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been often used for thin-film thickness measurement, whose performance evaluations were only conducted at the level of simple comparisons with the existing analysis methods. However, it is not an easy and simple way to verify the reliability of an ANN based on international length standards. In this article, we propose for the first time a method by which to design and evaluate an ANN for determining the thickness of the thin film with international standards. The original achievements of this work are to choose parameters of the ANN reasonably and to evaluate the training instead of a simple comparison with conventional methods. To do this, ANNs were built in 12 different cases, and then trained using theoretical spectra. The experimental spectra of the certified reference materials (CRMs) used here served as the validation data of each trained ANN, with the output then compared with a certified value. When both values agree with each other within an expanded uncertainty of the CRMs, the ANN is considered to be reliable. We expect that the proposed method can be useful for evaluating the reliability of ANN in the future.