Near-Field Scanning Millimeter-Wave Microscope Operating Inside a Scanning Electron Microscope: Towards Quantitative Electrical Nanocharacterization

Autor: Petr Polovodov, Didier Théron, Clément Lenoir, Dominique Deresmes, Sophie Eliet, Christophe Boyaval, Gilles Dambrine, Kamel Haddadi
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Applied Sciences, Vol 11, Iss 6, p 2788 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2076-3417
DOI: 10.3390/app11062788
Popis: The main objectives of this work are the development of fundamental extensions to existing scanning microwave microscopy (SMM) technology to achieve quantitative complex impedance measurements at the nanoscale. We developed a SMM operating up to 67 GHz inside a scanning electron microscope, providing unique advantages to tackle issues commonly found in open-air SMMs. Operating in the millimeter-wave frequency range induces high collimation of the evanescent electrical fields in the vicinity of the probe apex, resulting in high spatial resolution and enhanced sensitivity. Operating in a vacuum allows for eliminating the water meniscus on the tip apex, which remains a critical issue to address modeling and quantitative analysis at the nanoscale. In addition, a microstrip probing structure was developed to ensure a transverse electromagnetic mode as close as possible to the tip apex, drastically reducing radiation effects and parasitic apex-to-ground capacitances with available SMM probes. As a demonstration, we describe a standard operating procedure for instrumentation configuration, measurements and data analysis. Measurement performance is exemplarily shown on a staircase microcapacitor sample at 30 GHz.
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