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Manufacturing Review
Semiconductor-based device fabrication and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology have been major sources of the great success enjoyed by the modern high-tech manufacturing industry. Semiconductor-based device fabrication produces logic and vertical memory devices (fin structure, STI, TSV), liquid crystal displays (LCD), light-emitting diodes (LED), organic LED (OLED), and contact image sensors (CIS), etc. MEMS structures provide various photonic applications including the production of wave guide structures. In those industrial device manufacturing processes utilizing both semiconductor-based and MEMS techniques, reviewing (inspection) the correct dimension of device structures and any unintended defects on on them is critical to maximize productivity and cost-efficiency at every step of the whole in-line process.
Recently, as the size of both device structure and defect becomes smaller, down to the range that optical inspection techniques are unable to detect, the need to review at higher and higher sensitivity has been increasing in the manufacturing industries. This has resulted in the adoption of techniques capable of nanometer resolution review such as atomic force microscopy (AFM).
Many industrial researchers and engineers choose Park Automated AFM for their review of aspects of structural geometry such as feature height, pitch, critical dimension (CD), angle, and even sidewalls together with roughness analyses. This is due to their awareness of Park Automated AFM's accurate measurement results, low system noise, high-throughput rate, and minimized tip-to-tip variation from True Non-Contact™ mode AFM imaging technology.
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Park Systems is dedicated not just to advancing research, but industry as well. That’s why our designers have worked to build a line of the most effective AFMs for FA engineers and industrial applications. Allowing users to take highly accurate measurements and complete their work more quickly, these tools can improve efficiency in the workplace and reduce errors, leading to a more profitable, more consistent development and production process.
Park NX-Wafer
The Park NX-Wafer is the only wafer fabrication AFM with automatic defect review. This gives it the power to increase the throughput of your lab by up to 1000% while ensuring a high level of accuracy and quality control when scanning wafers up to 300 mm in size.
Park NX-3DM
Park NX-3DM is the completely automated AFM system designed for overhang profiles, high-resolution sidewall imaging, and critical angle measurements. With the decoupled XY and Z scanning system with tilted Z-scanner, it overcomes the challenges of the normal and flare tip methods in accurate sidewall analysis. In utilizing our True Non-Contact Mode™, the Park NX-3DM enables non-destructive measurement of soft photoresist surfaces with high aspect ratio tips.
Park NX-PTR
The Park NX-PTR is a fully automatic industrial in-line AFM solution for, but not limited to, automatic pole tip recession measurements on rowbar-level, individual slider-level, and HGA-level sliders. With sub-nanoscale accuracy, high repeatability and throughput, the Park NX-PTR is the metrology tool of choice for Slider manufacturers to improve their overall production yield.
Technical Notes
Semiconductor
- Automatic Defect Review (ADR) of 300mm Bare Wafers with Automated AFM
- High Throughput and Non-Destructive Sidewall Roughness Measurement Using 3-Dimensional AFM
- New 3D-AFM for High Resolution Sidewall Imaging
Life Science
Life science has a direct connection in improving the quality of life for all of humanity. Advances in this domain
have innumerable applications in the health, pharamaceutical, and agricultural industries. As time marches on, we are
pressed by new challenges to better understand the phenomena of life not yet illuminated by the light of science. One
such daunting frontier is at the nanoscale. Applying atomic force microscopy (AFM) to life science, researchers are
now allowed to begin exploring the darkened mysteries at this border with the unknown.
Researchers using Park
AFM in life science can acquire the nanoscale morphology of biological samples accurately and easily. Of particular
use is the the force-distance spectroscopy that AFM provides. This technique allows for the characterization of
biological materials along such physical properties as stiffness, adhesion, and even its Young's modulus with sub-nN
level precision.
Furthermore, Park AFM has developed an innovative in-liquid imaging technology, Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM). This technique has enabled researchers to study complicated physiological phenomena in liquid directly, something not possible with conventional microscopes. Not only are physiological biomaterials and live cells able to be imaged with Park SICM, but various pipette-based applications can be integrated into the investigation such as patch clamping for ion channel signal detection, electrochemical reaction analyses, and even nanoinjections or nanobiopsies.
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Upgrade your materials research capabilities with Park AFM
The characterization of biological nanomaterials has always been a technically difficult challenge for researchers and requires instrumentation with the versatility to match ever-changing application needs. Park Systems offers a high quality AFM product line replete with corresponding accessories, software, and complementary technologies such as Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM) to tackle a wide range of nanoscale research demands.
Park NX10
Park NX10 helps life science researchers study biomaterials at the nanoscale. AFM’s high resolution enables the observation and comprehension of nanostructures in biomaterials at the cellular level such as organelles and even DNA and RNA. Furthermore, using force distance spectroscopy via AFM, life scientists can examine various biomaterial physical properties on the order of nanonewtons.
Park NX10 SICM Module
Park NX10 SICM provides life science researchers with both AFM and Scanning Ion Conductance Microscopy (SICM) techniques on the same Park NX10 system. SICM enables life scientists to image biomaterials in a liquid environment therefore allowing for the discovery of the true morphology of biomaterials in a totally non-invasive way.
Technical Notes
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is one of the latest research fields that rely on manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Innovation resulting from nanostructure breakthroughs have brought numerous technological advances in both research and industry, contributing to the progress of other research fields as well. These days, using nanostructure fabrication methods in various ways has become standard research in improving product performance irrespective of industry.
To fabricate and characterize nanoscale structures, researchers have been utilizing AFM to find practical solutions since the development of the first commercial AFM from Park Systems. Park Systems’ advanced AFM know-how and a self-developed and especially accurate feedback control system in their AFM products allow their customers to both image and manipulate nanostructures with increased accuracy and with higher productivity.
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Upgrade your materials research capabilities with Park AFM
The fabrication and manipulation of nanostructures has always been a technically difficult challenge for researchers and requires instrumentation with the versatility to match ever-changing application needs. Park Systems offers a high quality AFM product line replete with corresponding accessories and software to tackle a wide range of nanoscale research demands.
Park NX10
Park NX10 provides researchers excellent AFM capabilities in nanofabrication and -manipulation. These capabilities, in conjunction with Park NX10’s proficiency in general materials and device characterization, enable researchers to seamlessly transition between various nanomaterials research fundamentals as needed. Starting with Nanolithography enabled through our stand-alone XEL program, Park NX10 offers dedicated software and various modes and options to enable other specialized applications such as nanopatterning, scratching, and even electrical field oxidation.
Technical Notes
Electrical & Electronics
For many, the electronics industry has been a cornerstone in bringing about the prosperity of the modern age. Electronics have completely transformed nearly every facet of day-to-day life, stoking a nearly insatiable societal and economic demand to continuously improve our devices. One of the chief ways to do so is for device companies to produce faster, smaller, cheaper, and more power efficient portable devices. However, the critical dimensions of these products have to be engineered on the order of nanometers. Characterizing electrical properties at nanometer-size, such as electrostatic force interactions, surface charges, conductivity, and electrostatic capacitance directly determines the product quality and performance in each device. Yet, such characterization something that cannot be easily done at an industrial scale with existing tools.
AFM's high nanoscale resolution and high sensitivity can fulfill the highly challenging requirements of nanoscale electrical property characterization. Park AFM provides industial-quality electrical property detection tools with high productivity to our customers in both research and industry.
Featured Products
Upgrade your materials research capabilities with Park AFM
The nanoscale characterization of electrical properties has always been a technically difficult challenge for researchers and requires instrumentation with the versatility to match ever-changing application needs. Park Systems is ready to helps such necessities for your research with high quality AFM products and corresponding accessories and software.
Park NX10
Park NX10 provides nanoscale electrical property characteriziation AFM for electrical property and electronics research that includes an optimized signal-to-noise ratio for ultra-low electrical signal detection. Using Park NX10, researchers can investigate and characterize various electrical properties with high sensitivity and productivity and without worry from frequent disturbances from electrical noise.
Park NX20
Park NX20 provides premier AFM performance in nanoscale electrical property characterization by allowing researchers to study a diverse range of devices. Using Park NX20, researchers and failure analysis engineers can examine large-size device samples and conduct multi-sample analyses.
Park NX-Hivac
Park NX-Hivac allows researchers to enhance electrical property measurement sensitivity through high vacuum environment control. This allows researchers to characterize electrical properties more accurately with higher spatial resolution and improved signal-to-noise ratio than when scanning under ambient conditions. Equipped with both automatic high vacuum control with dedicated management software and a chamber-optimized Park NX-AFM design, the Park NX-Hivac is built to enable researchers to easily acquire crucial data from samples under otherwise difficult vacuum conditions.
Technical Notes
Data Storage
- Undercut Structures and Sidewall Roughness
- AFM Metrology Considerations of Hard Disk Manufacturing
- Programmable Data Density (PDD) for High Throughput Feature Measurement
Semiconductor
- Accurate dopant profiles of semiconductor device structures with QuickStep Scanning Capacitance Microscopy
- Etched Silicon Structures
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