Thin Film and Coatings Measurements

Thin films and coatings often have unique measurement problems that are especially suited for surface and microanalysis measurement approaches. Features such as the composition (at the surface, interior and interface of the films), thickness, uniformity, defects, contamination, interface roughness and bonding, and functionality all can be critically important depending on the film or coatings application.

Our division develops and improves measurements and standards for the characterization of these critical film and coating features.

Technical Contact: Eric Steel

Background on the

Thin Film Industry

Applications of thin film deposition are spread over many industries including those listed below.

(Percentages are from R&D Magazine, March 2001 voluntary survey)

1. Silicon-based semi-conductor devices (28%)
2. Industrial coatings (28%)
3. Optical coatings (23%)
4. MEMS (21%)
5. Nanotechnology (21%)
6. Ceramics (16%)
7. Biomedical Research(15%)
8. Lasers & electro-optics (15%)
9. Instrumentation (15%)
10. Plastics (13%)
11. Flat panel displays (13%)
12. Metallurgy (11%)
13. III-V-based semiconductor devices (11%)
14. Catalysts (9%)
15. Environmental Analyses(7%)
16. Disk Drives (7%)
17. Inks (6%)
18. Decorative coatings (5%)
19. Abrasive materials (5%)

Example technical activities include:

Optical and Scanned Probe Methods:

Determination of the Absolute Molecular Orientational Distribution of the Polystyrene Surface

Removing Optical Artifacts in Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy

Breathing Mode Excitation in Near Harmonic Systems: From Laser-cooled Atoms in Optical Lattices to Molecules Adsorbed on Solid Surfaces

Liquid Crystal Alignment Layers: Non-destructive Determination of Ordering with Non-linear Optical Spectroscopy

Oxygen Atom Reactions with Well-Characterized Surface Adlayers on Si(100)

Probing buried interfaces with Non-linear optical probes: Si/CoSi₂

Electron Beam Methods:

Monte Carlo Methods For Optimizing The Quantitative Analysis Of Thin Layers, Microparticles And Irregular Surfaces

Strain Effects in Heteroepitaxial Thin Films Growth and Reactions

Phase Identification from sub 200 nm particles by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD)

Analytical Electron Microscopy of Ultrathin Gate Dielectric Films on Silicon

Fabrication and Electron Microprobe Characterization of Barium-Strontium-Titanate (BST) Films

Phase Mapping of Plasma-Sprayed Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Films

X-ray Methods:

Thickness Measurements of SEMATECH Gate Dielectrics by GIXPS

Role of uncertainties associated with fundamental parameters and surface/interface gradation in model Grazing Incidence X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy calculations

Effects of Elastic-Electron Scattering on Measurements of Silicon Dioxide Film Thicknesses by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

Phase Mapping of Plasma-Sprayed Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Films

Ion Beam Mass Spectrometries

Depth Profiling of Organic Films using the Time-of-Flight SIMS

Fundamental Studies of Mechanisms in Molecular SIMS Using Cluster Projectiles

Scanned Probe Methods

Microwave Evanescent Probe Microscopy for Materials Analysis

Characterization of Self-Assembled Monolayers and Hybrid Bilayer Systems Using Non-Contact Atomic Force Microscopy Techniques