Agilent Technologies Inc.’s capacitance calibration standard for an atomic force microscope (AFM) provides quantitative assessment of material and device properties via its R&D 100 award-winning Scanning Microwave Microscope Mode. Researchers from Agilent
collaborated with NIST to establish the new standard.
“SMM Mode is the only AFM-based electrical characterization
technique that affords researchers true calibrated capacitance,” says Jeff
Jones, operations manager for Agilent’s nanoinstrumentation facility in Chandler, Ariz. “This quantitative information is critical to better understand the response
and behavior of nanoscale systems, especially when device properties have to be
assessed at their intended operation frequencies.”
SMM Mode is a method that uses an Agilent microwave vector
network analyzer in concert with an Agilent 5420 or 5600LS AFM to measure
properties associated with small variations in the electromagnetic interactions
of a sample’s components with the incident microwave signal, statically or
dynamically. The Agilent-exclusive technique can be used for measurement on
semiconductors (no oxide layer required), metals, dielectric materials,
ferroelectric materials, insulators, and biological materials. Data from
representative samples demonstrate that SMM Mode is capable of mapping material
properties at a resolution ultimately limited by the sharpness of the AFM probe.
Agilent Technologies
Inc., www.agilent.com
