ARP Services

A. Capabilities Statement

Terahertz Nanoscanning Spectrometer & 3D Imager (TNS3DI): A new tool for semiconductor metrology

A New Groundbreaking Metrology Instrument for Semiconductor

B. Services

 ARP is offering characterization services for just about any semiconductor wafers and nano-system. Quotation is provided on a case by case basis. Examples are available upon request.

1. Nanoscale imaging and quantification*:

   • Semiconductor features size

   • Layers' thickness

   • Metal lines on wafers

2. Materials characterization

   • Lattice image

   • Stacking fault

   • Dislocations

   • Nanovoids

   • Delamination

3. 3D imaging and size of 0D--3D nanomaterials

   • Quantum dots

   • Graphene exfoliates

   • Carbon nanotubes

   • Nano-alloyes

   • Polymer-nano composites

4. Layer-by-layer analysis

   • Any non-metallic system in non-destructive mode.

5. Spectral analysis of both surface and sub-surfaces of materials

   • Solid, Liquid and Gaseous

Contact:

Anis Rahman, PhD
President/CTO
Phone: +1-717-623-8201
Email: a.rahman@arphotonics.net
Web: http://arphotonics.net

*Note: Overcoming the Abbe diffraction limit

Physics dictates that the ultimate image resolution is set by the wavelength of the light used for imaging – the so-called Abbe diffraction limit [1]. In 1873 Ernst Abbe found that light with wavelength λ, traveling in a medium with refractive index  and converging to a spot with half-angle q will make a spot with radius d = λ/(2n sin(q), where, n sin(q) is called the numerical aperture (NA). Approximating NA = 1 (i.e., for vacuum), the lowest spot size (resolution) is λ/2.

Since the wavelength of electrons is much smaller than that of photons (2.5 pm at 200 keV), the resolution of an electron microscope is theoretically unlimited. In practice, the resolution of an electron microscope is limited to ~0.1 nm due to the objective lenses in the system. As such the electron microscopes (e.g., a TEM) and AFM seem to be the only option for nano-scale imaging.

While these techniques are effective and accurate, they are destructive; require tedious and time-consuming sample preparation. Additionally, they produce a frozen-in-time image of a single surface. A semiconductor wafer, for example, must be cut for inspection across its thickness. Samples may only be as big as it may fit in the sample chamber that must be kept under high vacuum.

Up until now, there was no alternative for nano-scale characterization of a whole wafer both on its surface and across its thickness or the sub-surface in a non-destructive mode with layer-by-layer inspection capability.

Applied Research & Photonics, Inc. (“ARP”) is a technology company in Harrisburg, PA, USA. ARP has developed terahertz nanoscanning instrument, providing the precision metrology required to measure critical, nanometer size surface and sub-surface features on today’s state of the art semiconductor chips. As these critical circuit dimensions are often smaller than a strand of human DNA, it is imperative that the measurements are made with a non-contacting probe which can accurately measure and graphically display such features of interest with a resolution of <1nm.

The semiconductor industry’s concern with current inspection technologies are: Surface contacting (Atomic Force Microscopes) can damage nanometer scale circuits; X-Ray inspection techniques impart high energies which can damage substrate lattice structures; UV inspection at wavelengths of 256 nanometers (the current state of the art) are limited to a device’s surface structure only and sub-surface defects are unobservable. Electron microscope measurements involve destructive and tedious sample preparation, and also impart high beam energies which can be detrimental to circuit structures. As such, semiconductor companies are seeking new technologies in response to these challenging measurement requirements. ARP has demonstrated its capabilities to answer the above mentioned needs. Its products are being used by industry and university research centers.

ARP is currently seeking funding for marketing its products and for formal introduction to the multi-billion-dollar global semiconductor manufacturing market. We propose a more formal presentation on our technology to the appropriate parties. Your evaluation of our proposal and advisement on funding would be greatly appreciated.

We invite your perusal of the following examples [2–4]. Additional examples are available up on request. Many thanks in advance for your consideration.

1. Ernst Abbe, Arch. Mikrosk. Anat. 9, 413 (1873); also cited in Lipson, Lipson and Tannhauser (1998). Optical Physics. United Kingdom: Cambridge. p. 340. ISBN 978-0-521-43047-0.

2. Rahman, A.; Rahman, A. K.; Yamamoto, T.; Kitagawa, H., “Terahertz sub-nanometer sub-surface imaging of 2D materials.” J. Biosens. Bioelectron., 2016, 7:3

3. Rahman, A.; and Rahman, A. K., “Terahertz Spectroscopic Analysis and Multispectral Imaging of Epitaxially Grown Semiconductors with Nanometer Resolution,” J. Biosens. Bioelectron., 2016, 7:4

4. Anis Rahman, “Terahertz multispectral imaging of epitaxially grown semiconductors’ lattice defects,” ASMC 2017, Albany, NY, May 15–18, 2017.

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