AVS 51st International Symposium
    Advanced Surface Engineering Tuesday Sessions
       Session SE-TuM

Paper SE-TuM6
In-situ Quantitative Nano-scale Metrology of Thin Coatings

Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 10:00 am, Room 303D

Session: Hard and Low Friction Coatings with Advanced Designs
Presenter: N. Gitis, Center for Tribology, Inc.
Authors: N. Gitis, Center for Tribology, Inc.
A. Daugela, Center for Tribology, Inc.
A.K. Sikder, Center for Tribology, Inc.
M. Vinogradov, Center for Tribology, Inc.
A. Meyman, Center for Tribology, Inc.
Correspondent: Click to Email
Quantitative nano-metrology tools have become a standard in semiconductor, data storage and other hi-tech industries where products are tested for coating properties. Though it is critical to characterize advanced thin films and coatings, todayâ?Ts off-line nanoscale metrology tools can capture only limited number of manufacturing process stages. A quantitative nano/micro-instrument mod. UNMT with both SPM and optical microscope imaging integrated into it was developed to characterize mechanical properties of thin films and coatings and monitor their changes during indentation, scratching, reciprocating, rotating and other tribology tests. Both the materials properties and surface topography can be assessed at various stages of the tests. A 5-um thick copper layer on a silicon wafer was tested for changes in material properties during tribology test. Integrated SPM type imaging and nano-indentation tests revealed changes in elastic modulus, hardness and surface topography at nanometer scale. Dynamics of the copper layer hardening was recorded at several hundreds time steps during the entire tribology test.