State Key Laboratory of Precision Measuring Technology and Instruments, Tianjin University, Weijin Road, No.92, Tianjin 300072, China.
Sensors (Basel). 2012;12(1):175-188. doi: 10.3390/s120100175. Epub 2011 Dec 27.
A hybrid atomic force microscopic (AFM) measurement system combined with white light scanning interferometry for micro/nanometer dimensional measurement is developed. The system is based on a high precision large-range positioning platform with nanometer accuracy on which a white light scanning interferometric module and an AFM head are built. A compact AFM head is developed using a self-sensing tuning fork probe. The head need no external optical sensors to detect the deflection of the cantilever, which saves room on the head, and it can be directly fixed under an optical microscopic interferometric system. To enhance the system's dynamic response, the frequency modulation (FM) mode is adopted for the AFM head. The measuring data can be traceable through three laser interferometers in the system. The lateral scanning range can reach 25 mm × 25 mm by using a large-range positioning platform. A hybrid method combining AFM and white light scanning interferometry is proposed to improve the AFM measurement efficiency. In this method, the sample is measured firstly by white light scanning interferometry to get an overall coarse morphology, and then, further measured with higher resolution by AFM. Several measuring experiments on standard samples demonstrate the system's good measurement performance and feasibility of the hybrid measurement method.
一种结合原子力显微镜（AFM）和白光扫描干涉测量的混合微/纳尺寸测量系统。该系统基于高精度大行程定位平台，具有纳米级精度，在该平台上构建了白光扫描干涉模块和 AFM 探头。采用自感调谐叉探针开发了一种紧凑的 AFM 探头。该探头无需外部光学传感器来检测悬臂梁的挠度，从而节省了探头的空间，并且可以直接固定在光学显微镜干涉系统下。为了增强系统的动态响应，AFM 探头采用调频（FM）模式。系统中的三个激光干涉仪可实现测量数据的可溯源性。通过使用大行程定位平台，横向扫描范围可达 25mm×25mm。提出了一种结合 AFM 和白光扫描干涉测量的混合方法来提高 AFM 测量效率。在该方法中，首先通过白光扫描干涉测量对样品进行整体粗形貌测量，然后再通过 AFM 进行更高分辨率的进一步测量。对标准样品的多次测量实验验证了系统的良好测量性能和混合测量方法的可行性。
