Bruker
Corporation (NASDAQ: BRKR) announced today at the Materials Research Society
(MRS) Fall 2010 Meeting the AcuityXR™, a novel optical surface profiler
mode that combines unique, patent-pending Bruker hardware and software technology
to enable select ContourGT™ non-contact, 3D optical surface profilers
to break the optical diffraction limit and deliver lateral resolutions that
were previously considered impossible to achieve.
Many nanoscale applications in the semiconductor, medical and precision machining
fields today have surface features and defects with dimensions that limit detection
or identification due to the optical diffraction limit. Such miniscule features
and defects often directly affect function, performance, quality and/or manufacturing
yields and are of great interest to researchers and production QA/QC personnel
alike. Bruker optical surface profiler systems equipped with the new AcuityXR
mode have shown resolution of features below 130 nanometers in width, which
is unprecedented in optical microscopy and is nearly three times finer than
for systems without this technology. Furthermore, AcuityXR enables this new
level of precision while preserving the wide field-of-view and high performance
benefits of Bruker non-contact, 3D optical surface profiling. With AcuityXR,
dimensional repeatability on narrow structures has been shown to improve by
more than a factor of 5x, showing a true metrology benefit to the technology
in addition to its ability to reveal exceptionally fine features. AcuityXR is
an optional capability that is now available on Bruker ContourGT-K1, X3 and
X8 optical surface profilers.
"AcuityXR combines radically new measurement algorithms with the enhanced
metrology hardware technology in the ContourGT-K1, X3 and X8 systems that together
deliver lateral resolutions never before achieved in optical microscopy,"
said Mr. Ross Q. Smith, Vice President and General Manager of Bruker’s
Stylus & Optical Metrology Unit. "This remarkable new capability, which
is exclusively available on ContourGT systems, is a great benefit to both our
current and prospective customers in semiconductor, medical and precision machining
applications where feature sizes are shrinking while the need for quality is
continuously increasing."
Dr. Mark R. Munch, President of the Bruker Nano Surfaces Business, added: "AcuityXR
builds upon the industry-leading performance, repeatability and ease-of-use
capabilities of the ContourGT product family. Bringing this unprecedented achievement
to market truly illustrates Bruker’s on-going commitment to provide the
highest value nanosurface metrology systems to our industrial and R&D customers."
ContourGT systems equipped with AcuityXR will be demonstrated at the Bruker
Nano Surfaces Booth (No. 300) at the MRS Fall Meeting held at the Hynes Convention
Center in Boston, MA, November 30 through December 2. Bruker will be conducting
a seminar on AcuityXR and other advanced optical surface measurement modes on
Tuesday, November 30 at 6:30 PM in the Sheraton Boston Hotel, 3rd Floor, Beacon
G.
Introduced earlier in 2010, the ContourGT family of non-contact, 3D optical
surface profilers features Bruker-patented, high-brightness dual-LED illumination
that, when combined with the system’s superior vertical resolution, greatly
improves sensitivity and stability and enables precision non-contact 3D surface
metrology in difficult applications and environments that are challenging for
other WLI-based systems. The ContourGT also features the new Bruker-developed
and patent-pending Vision64™ operating and analysis software and the industry’s
most intuitive, modular user interface that provides user-level-customization
capabilities for a wide range of surface profiling metrology applications.