Thin Film Measurement Systems

Stellarnet Non -contact Thin Film Reflectometry Systems - Stellarnet

Measurement of the thickness and index on single and multi-layer films

StellarNet’s Thin Film measurement systems measure thickness and index of both single-layer and multilayer films in less than a second (up to 5+ layers). The non-contact thickness measurement systems come complete with instrumentation and software including a large library of materials data to support multilayer, freestanding, rough, and both thick & thin layer structures. With USB connectivity and the powerful, userfriendly TFCompanion software, daily complex measurements are made quick and simple. Several configurations are available for measuring thin films with spectral response in UV-VIS, VIS-NIR and NIR wavelength ranges.

Main Features:

- Thin Film Thickness from 50um to 200um
- Real-time Spectral capture for Reflectance and/or Transmittance
- Includes large library of Materials Data
- Supports multilayer, freestanding, rough, & both thick & thin layers
- New materials easily added
- Supports Parameterized materials: Cauchy, Sellmeir, EMA, Harmonic oscillator, Tauc-Lorentz oscillator, Drude-Lorentz

Models:

TF-VIS - Majority of translucent or lightly absorbing films can be measured quickly and reliably: Oxides,Nitrides, Photoresists, Polymers, Semiconductors (Si, aSi, polySi), Hard coatings (SiC, DLC), Polymer coatings (Paralene, PMMA, Polyamides), thin metal films and many more.

Applications include LCD, FPD: ITO, Cell Gaps, Polyamides. Optical Coatings: dielectric filters, hardness coating, anti-reflection coating Semiconductor and dielectics: Oxides, Nitrides, OLED stack.

Hardware includes compact visible spectrometer, visible light source, reflectance probe, and reflectance probe holder.

TF-UVVIS-SR – Allows thinner film measurement down to 1nm with UV-VIS light.  Hardware upgrades to UV-VIS spectrometer and UV-VIS source.  Fiber optics must be enhanced with -SR (solarization resistance) in order to transmit and collect additional UV signal.

TF-UVVIS-NIR – Adding a NIR spectrometer channel allows for thicker films to be measured. 

Stellarnet Thin Film Software features:

Thickness and optical constants (n and k) can be measured quickly and easily using powerful user-friendly software which make daily complex measurements quick and simple.

TF software includes a large library of materials data that enables measurement of the wide range of layer structures: multilayer, freestanding, rough, thick and thin layer structures are supported. New materials can be added easily by measuring corresponding sample or importing data from the text file.

The measurement process consists of two steps: data acquisition and data analysis. TF Systems defines all the process in a measurement recipe and makes it transparent to the user. At the same time the user has the ability to store measured data and analyze it later.

TF supports Parameterized materials e.g. Cauchy, Sellmeir, EMA (effective-medium approximation), Harmonic oscillator, Tauc-Lorentz oscillator, Drude-Lorentz and many more approximations. These approximations represent optical dispersion of materials in desired spectral range using few coefficients that can be adjusted. For example, oxides are frequently represented using Cauchy and glasses using Sellmeir approximation, amorphous materials (e.g. SiNx, aSi) can be represented using Tauc-Lorentz and phase-mixed materials (e.g. poly-Si) using EMA approximation.

Measurements are made using: reflectance/transmittance spectroscopy which measures the optical response of the layer structure. The user creates an optical model of the layer structure and uses data analysis to determine physical properties: the results are inferred from the best fit of measured and modeled data. TF software provides many options to easily analyze simple and most complex filmstacks, graded layers, periodic structures, very thick films, films on thin substrates, multi-sample measurements, etc. Simulation and error-estimator tools allow user better understand data and the expected precision.

During in-situ, in-line or other long running measurements conditions like surface roughness, ambient light, etc. may be changing. TF software supports roughness and scaling correction that allows factoring in these effects.

Accessories:

R- 600 Reflectance Probe: has both illumination and read fibers bundled together coupling to the system. The new, improved reflectance probe holder allows for variable distance from sample.

TF-STD1 Thin Film standards for thickness measurement verification (extra cost): Includes Si substrate for reference with 2 additional SiO2 substrates –100nm and 1000nm thickness.