Thickness characterization of thin films is of primary importance in a variety of nanotechnology applications, either in the semiconductor industry, quality control in nanofabrication processes or engineering of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) because small thickness variability can strongly compromise the device performance. Here, we present an alternative optical method in bright field mode called Spatially Multiplexed Micro-Spectrophotometry that allows rapid and non-destructive characterization of thin films over areas of mm2 and with 1 μm of lateral resolution. We demonstrate an accuracy of 0.1% in the thickness characterization through measurements performed on four microcantilevers that expand an area of 1.8 mm2 in one minute of analysis time. The measured thickness variation in the range of few tens of nm translates into a mechanical variability that produces an error of up to 2% in the response of the studied devices when they are used to measure surface stress variations.
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机译：薄膜的厚度表征在各种纳米技术应用中至关重要，无论是在半导体行业，纳米制造工艺中的质量控制还是纳米机电系统（NEMS）的工程设计中，因为小的厚度变化都可能严重损害器件性能。在这里，我们提出了一种在明场模式下称为空间复用微分光光度法的替代光学方法，该方法可以对mm 2 区域上的薄膜进行快速无损表征，横向分辨率为1μm。通过对四个微悬臂梁进行的测量，我们证明了厚度表征的精度为0.1％，该悬臂梁在一分钟的分析时间内扩展了1.8 mm 2 的面积。在几十纳米范围内测得的厚度变化转化为机械变化，当所研究的设备用于测量表面应力变化时，该变化会产生高达2％的误差。
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