Acquisition of a GeminiSEM 560

The Niels Bohr Institute is part of the Faculty of SCIENCE at the University of Copenhagen. The Niels Bohr Institute has a 100 year long tradition of excellence within science, in particular within the area of quantum physics. The institute was inaugurated on March 3, 1921, by Professor Niels Bohr. We are approx. 430 researchers, 70 administrative and technical staff, 100 PhD students and 400 students. The European Physical Society has declared the Niels Bohr Institute a Historic Site of great international importance for the development of physics and research.

A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is essential for our characterization efforts here at NQCP.

The SEM will be one among a handful of highly specialized characterization tools that will be used daily. Each will give essential feedback for trouble-shooting and improving our in-house produced novel materials. Modern SEM models are highly automized, enabling fast and consistent inspection measurements on nm-scale. This specific model has associated software that allows correlative studies with specific optical microscopes.

The following is crucial for our choice of scanning electron microscope (SEM) for material characterization:

Magnetic field free lens technology is required.

Being a characterization cornerstone of the various novel materials that we will develop at the Quantum Foundry, the SEM optics must be magnetic field free. This makes the SEM truly versatile, allowing the optimal resolution on magnetic samples as well.

Strong performance at low voltages.

The beam booster technology of this product makes sure to always to maintain a high energy throughout the entire column. This ensures that the beam is extremely well protected against stray fields, even when the SEM is operated at very low voltage.

Reproducibility is key.

The product has an electromagnetic 7-hole aperture changer is incorporated close to the emitter system. This always the system always to be optimized to the best resolution with the standard aperture (20 µm). This reproducibility is essential for the automated tasks we want to apply the tool for.

Must include a high-end EBSD detector.

EBSD will be a crucial technique for our characterization toolbox, allowing us to quickly extract even more material parameters including grain sizes and orientations. This tool comes with an Oxford Symmetry S3, which is one of the best on the market.

Mixing of different signals from detectors must be possible at any ratio.

This product allows parallel inlens EsB and inlens SE detection as well as parallel inlens SE and chamber SE detection using the Everhart-Thornley detector. The signal mixing is crucial when looking for different features.

Future-proof: In-situ imaging compatible.

In the future, we might need to transfer 6-inch wafers from our growth chamber to the SEM without exposure to atmosphere. This system can easily be upgraded with an airlock to enable introduction of up to 6-inch wafers.

Must be CorrMeas compatible.

This software allows correlative work between, various types of microscopes and device designs. It also controls the API of those microscopes, enabling quick and automatic location of features of interest observed in other tools.

The SEM will be used to inspect features, observed in an optical microscope but with nm resolution.

Searching for features of interest with the electron microscope itself can deteriorate the surface. This is avoided by optical pre-identification.

The combination of correlative maps and API control will largely increase the speed of our research progress.

CorrMeas, being an independent software supplier, is ideal because it allows correlative work between hardware of different vendors, such as Zeiss and Oxford.