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As devices continue to become smaller, more complex, and more highly integrated, atomic scale measurements of their structure, chemistry, strain, and electric field are increasingly crucial for device design, reliability, and optimization. The aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron
Advanced packaging involves increasingly challenging requirements for heterogeneous integration and chiplet packaging. Needs such as fine pitch interconnects
The use of thermal converters for ac voltage metrology was introduced by Frank Hermach at NIST in 1952. The basic thermal converter is a thermoelement, consisting of a thermocouple positioned at the midpoint of a heater wire, enclosed in an evacuated bulb. The thermoelement senses the heat generated
Conventional TEM imaging was sufficient for decades in the semiconductor industry, but its utility is declining as device designs become more complex and as feature sizes continue to shrink. Conventional imaging modes are challenged by the small, complex structures which are vital to current and
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is increasingly being utilized as a method of depositing the thin (nanometer-scale), conformal layers required for many microelectronics applications, including high - gate dielectric layers, diffusion barrier layers, copper seed layers, and DRAM dielectric layers
Electromagnetic devices cannot operate without the interaction of electromagnetic waves with materials, and the characterization of the interface between fields and materials will be a critical task for any device or metrology development from nanoscale to larger scales. Areas of impact over the
Knowledge of a material’s mechanical properties is key to designing safe and reliable structural components for applications ranging in size from medical implants to large civil engineering structures. Traditionally, a material’s mechanical properties are measured by performing mechanical tests on
EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography, the technology that “saved Moore’s Law,” is widely regarded as the future of cutting-edge nanofabrication. It was developed in the United States and U.S. companies in many parts of the EUV ecosystem have established dominance in the field that must be defended
NIST is home to a broad interdisciplinary program in quantum information science. NIST is exploring multiple implementations of qubits and strategies for taking advantage of quantum effects to compute, simulate, and improve fundamental measurement strategies. Josephson junctions are at the heart of
Power electronics play a central role in all aspects of electrical energy storage, distribution, conversion, and consumption. Currently, power electronics heavily rely on Si-based insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBT), which have large footprints, are inefficient, and require extensive cooling
We have developed parametric amplifiers based on two different technologies: Josephson Junctions and superconductors with high kinetic inductance, a representation of the kinetic energy of superconducting Cooper-pair charge carriers. Junction-based parametric amplifiers (JPAs) are well suited for
Conventional transmission electron imaging does not necessarily show both strong contrast and high spatial resolution for nanomaterials or soft matter. This is particularly the case for isolated nanostructures or low- Z materials like polymers or biomaterials. For example, consider structures in the
NIST CTL’s Antenna Metrology Project combines theoretical models, analytical tools, and custom-developed facilities to advance the field of antenna measurement and share those advances with industry, government, and academic users. Two generations ago, NIST pioneered the near-field scanning
Atom probe tomography (APT) is a unique analytical tool capable of providing 3D atomic maps of any element in the periodic table with sub-nm spatial resolution and high analytical sensitivity (in the ppm range, in some cases). APT is currently employed by many of the largest semiconductor
Electronics engineers use on-wafer calibration die to calibrate measurement equipment before characterizing or modeling semiconductor devices. While NIST pioneered on-wafer calibrations in the 1990’s, most industrial labs use commercial ‘Impedance Standard Substrates’ (ISS) that are manufactured by
Heat management in modern semiconductor devices at nanoscal es is a multiscale and multiphysics problem of strong industrial interest. The power density in modern nanoscale devices becomes extremely high, whichcan drastically reduce the efficiency and the lifespan of the device. This problem
The research community has long identified the need for propagation measurements to develop and evaluate communication circuits. Since 2011, NIST has been to prototyping state-of-the-art channel sounders for measuring RF channel propagation. NIST current channel sounders include LIDAR and camera
Across the entire semiconductor industry, issues related to thermomechanical mismatches encountered during packaging are limiting factors in the design and fabrication of 3D modular integrated circuits. This project will develop novel and necessary metrologies for thermomechanical properties of
This project focuses on manipulating nanomaterials, including weakly bonded van der Waals systems, and probing emergent phenomena in these nanoengineered systems to impact technologies such as nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, quantum sensing, and quantum computing. Developing processes to
The semiconductor industry is in need of new in-line dimensional metrology methods to measure the size and shape of nanoscale structures such as gate-all-around transistors, 3D-NAND, and 3D-DRAM for process control. The NIST-developed CDSAXS method has recently been commercialized for
The primary degradation process in EUVL tools and satellite instruments begins by the adsorption of water or carbonaceous molecules from the vacuum environment onto the optic surface. The optic is damaged if the molecule undergoes photon-stimulated decomposition before it can (reversibly) thermally
NIST’s Quantum Sensors Division develops highly sensitive cryogenic sensors, for example transition-edge sensors (TESs) and kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs), to enable precision measurements in a large range of scientific applications. The successful implementation of these novel sensor
Collaborations with industry leaders have led us to develop new measurement techniques to improve our understanding thermal transport, spin transport, and nanoscopic (and interfacial) material properties in active device structures. Such capability requires the ability to measure these properties at
Heat is greatly impeding progress in microelectronics, which is only getting worse as dimensions are reduced and device architectures move more towards being 3-dimensional. The dynamics and physics of nanoscale thermal transport are unknown and dynamic measurements of active devices at this scale do