Highlights from the Manufacturing
Engineering Laboratory, March 2002

Impact of NIST Research and Services

Scanning electron microscopes (SEM) are being utilized extensively in the semiconductor production environment, and NIST scientists developed, published and promoted an objective diagnostic procedure to ensure data fidelity by looking at the sharpness measurements. The concept of continuous or periodic sharpness monitoring, key to the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) Monitor program has been incorporated into the newest Hitachi CD-SEM. The Hitachi S-9260 CD-SEM incorporates a "beam condition" monitor that provides numerical and graphical descriptions of the condition of the instrument and documents the instrument’s condition over time.

Programmatic/Technical Accomplishments

Several years of continuing successes in the refinement and demonstration of 4D/RCS for the purposes of autonomous mobility for ground vehicles has led to the central role that the technology will play in the multi-billion dollar DARPA/Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. DARPA and the Army on March 2 announced the selection of the team of the Boeing Co. (Anaheim, Calif., and Seattle, Wash.) and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) as the Lead Systems Integrator (LSI) for the concept and technology development phase of the Future Combat Systems program. Subject to negotiation, the Boeing-SAIC team will receive a $154 million award for this 16-month effort. Boeing’s Broad Industry Announcements in the area of unmanned ground vehicles call for "software controls/processing consistent with the 4D/RCS architecture." Jim Albus, Maris Juberts and Bob Finkelstein (RTI Inc.) were funded by Boeing in Phase I of the program to help develop FCS concepts and to prepare technology roadmaps.

A new standard for measurement of thread wires has just been published. The standard, ASME B89.1.17 "Measurement of Thread Measuring Wires", was developed under the leadership of chairman Ralph Veale, a guest researcher in the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory. The new standard will establish uniform practices for this important measurement, which is a critical step needed to properly establish pitch diameter of threaded fasteners. The new standard will promote manufacture of more uniform threaded fasteners with better fit and improved functionality.

Interactions

Dr. Michael T. Postek in collaboration with Dr. Oliver C. Wells of IBM Research presented the all-day tutorial "CD Metrology and Image formation in the scanning electron microscope" at the SPIE Microlithography meeting on Sunday, March 3. This was one of the largest attendances since the course was started. Attendees included semiconductor manufacturers (representative companies including Intel, IBM, Canon) and several equipment manufacturers. This is the seventh consecutive year that this collaborative tutorial has been presented. Dr. Oliver Wells is one of the foremost names in scanning electron microscopy. Dr. Wells received his doctorate at Cambridge University and part of his dissertation included the building of the second scanning electron microscope (probably in the world). Dr. Well’s research at IBM is well known throughout the SEM community and he provides a wealth of information during one of these tutorial sessions. Dr. Wells and NIST have been collaborating in the development of low loss electron detection for accurate CD metrology and recently published two papers on that methodology this year in the journal SCANNING.

On a trip to Japan in March, John A. Dagata of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory participated in a 2-day planning meeting for a new project on scanned probe microscope (SPM)-based nanolithography led by H. Yokoyama, director of the Nanotechnology Research Institute (NRI), National Institute for Advanced Industrial Research (AIST), Tsukuba Japan. Also present was F. Perez-Murano of the National Microelectronics Center (CNM), Barcelona Spain. MEL recently signed a trilateral research agreement with NRI and CNM aimed at optimizing tools and techniques for SPM oxidation, a nanolithographic technique pioneered by Dr. Dagata. At this meeting, specific research directions proposed by the Japanese researchers were discussed and evaluated for their significance to progress on SPM oxidation and chances of success within the time frame of the project. Dr. Dagata also presented an invited talk entitled "Consideration of metrology needs for the development of nanotechnology" during a visit to the Venture Business Laboratory, Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto Japan, hosted by Prof. H. Yamada, a noted researcher in the area of non-contact scanned probe methods and electric force measurement techniques applied to molecular electronic nanodevices.

Recognition

The March 2002 issue of OE Magazine, a monthly magazine of SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering) included an invited tutorial on Surface Finish Metrology, entitled "In the Rough," by Theodore Vorburger, Joseph Fu, and Ndubuisi Orji, scientists from NIST’s Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory. The article discusses instrumental techniques and parameters for characterization of smooth surface finishes required for high performance optics. The article was based partially on a tutorial developed by Ted Vorburger and taught for about ten years at the Annual Conference of the American Society for Precision Engineering. OE Magazine covers "key technologies, people, significant achievements and events, industry trends, news, education, and more for the international optical engineering, photonics, imaging, and electronics community." One reader, expressed the following about the article, "Thanks for a great article on surface roughness. A while back I had to spec. some spherical…x-ray mirrors… New to this field, I first had to educate my self on the language and methods used to measure ‘super’ smooth surfaces . Your latest article has condensed all that information into a short and concise 3 page report. I clipped it for my tech-files, for easy reference".

melwebmaster@nist.gov