Project: Electrical nanoscale metrology in industry

Acronym	Elena (Reference Number: 20IND12)
Duration	01/09/2021 - 31/08/2024
Project Topic	Micro- and nano-electronics account for 10% of the EU’s GDP and are considered a Key Enabling Technology by the European Commission. Competitive advantage in the semiconductor industry is gained through the exploitation of new materials and processes, translating into improved component performance. Identifying nanoscale defects early during manufacturing enables a faster route to market and reduces waste. Conductive Atomic Force Microscopes (C-AFM) and Scanning Microwave Microscopes (SMM) have the potential to allow accurate, non-destructive analysis of semiconductor components. However, a lack of reference standards and traceability to the SI, has limited industrial uptake of these techniques. This project will develop current and resistance standards for AFM and SMM with target measurement uncertainties of 10%. A calibration set-up will be established for C-AFM and a novel capacitive calibration kit, including improved probe tips, will be developed for SMM, enabling in situ determination of important measurement parameters, including the dielectric constant. Calibration methodology will include the uncertainty contributions from influencing factors including those that arise from the standards, tip-sample interactions and from the measurement instrument itself. In addition, an open-source, 3D model will be developed to simulate probe-sample interactions on electrical measurements such as the effects of the water meniscus at the tip-sample interface. The new reference standards and probes will be fabricated by means of industrially proven methods, facilitating the uptake and commercialisation of these techniques. As well as benefiting manufacturers of C-AFM and SMM, the validated methodologies are anticipated to provide a roadmap for future development of these techniques, allowing the improved analysis of new materials and products within the European semiconductor industry.
Website	visit project website
Network	EMPIR
Call	EMPIR Call 2020

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Laboratoire national de métrologie et d'essais	Coordinator	France
2	Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung	Partner	Germany
3	Cesky Metrologicky Institut	Partner	Czech Republic
4	Dansk Fundamental Metrologi A/S	Partner	Denmark
5	Eidgenössisches Institut für Metrologie METAS	Partner	Switzerland
6	Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt	Partner	Germany
7	Turkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Arastirma Kurumu	Partner	Türkiye
8	Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives	Partner	France
9	Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique	Partner	France
10	ISC International Standards Consulting GmbH & Co. KG	Partner	Germany
11	Universität Linz	Partner	Austria
12	Université de Lille	Partner	France
13	University of Glasgow	Partner	United Kingdom