Microscopy & Microtechniques

THE USE OF ADVANCED 3D SURFACE METROLOGY FOR THE CHARACTERISATION OF MICRO AND NANO SURFACE STRUCTURES

Nov 01 2007

Author: J Armstrong, L Blunt and R Blunt on behalf of Unassigned Independent Article

Free to read

This article has been unlocked and is ready to read.

Download

Over recent years the discipline of surface metrology has advanced greatly both in terms of instrumentation and in terms of techniques for surface characterisation. Recent developments in White Light Interferometer (WLI) instrumentation and in measurement software (particularly the so-called coherence correlation algorithm) for this technique has increased the vertical (i.e. height) resolution of these instruments to give a capability of 0.01 nm (i.e. 0.1 Angstrom), which makes it a practical tool for assessing the quality of micro and nanoscale surfaces. Whilst both WLI and AFM techniques have allowed visualisation of the 3D surface texture of surfaces at the micro and nanometer scale, a clear advantage of interferometry is that it is contactless, fast and can cover large areas, whereas the AFM technique, although it has a better measurement resolution tends not to suit the measurement of large areas and low spatial frequency components. A common flaw in the use of both of these instrument types is that despite the ?richness? of the data collected it is usually only the Ra, Rq or Rt values of the surface texture that are quoted. True surface areal texture information cannot be described by such parameters Consequently these simple amplitude based roughness parameters are inadequate for describing anything more than very simple surface-structures and as a result differing textures can often yield similar roughness values. This paper outlines the recent advances in 3D surface characterisation and the use of white light interferometry.

Free to read

This article has been unlocked and is ready to read.

Download


Digital Edition

MAC Guide 2023/24

December 2023

Buyers Guide - Major producers of analytical equipment who wish to introduce and sell their products to buyers in science and industry - Over 1,000 products and services that these companys man...

View all digital editions

Events

Instrumentation Live

Jan 17 2024 Birmingham, UK

Smart Factory Expo 2023

Jan 24 2024 Tokyo, Japan

Arab Health

Jan 29 2024 Dubai, UAE

Nano Tech 2024

Jan 31 2024 Tokyo, Japan

SLAS 2024

Feb 03 2024 Boston, MA, USA

View all events