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Microscopy

Polarized high-resolution imaging

Nature Photonics volume 2, pages 273–274 (2008)Cite this article

By making use of polarization control, researchers have achieved a record 100-nm resolution when imaging buried transistors in an integrated circuit.

The spatial resolution of a microscope is a key performance criterion in many scientific and industrial applications. At present, only the most advanced electron and scanning-probe microscopes can resolve the atomic-scale features of modern integrated circuits. However, the non-destructive imaging of buried transistors, which is necessary for integrated-circuit analysis, requires subsurface optical microscopy. The challenge is that the imaging resolution must be continually improved to match the ever shrinking size of transistors. A focused light beam from a microscope is often shone onto the circuit to induce carrier generation in the transistor silicon and the resolution of the measurement is determined by the size of the focal spot. Keith Serrels and his colleagues at Heriot-Watt University in the UK have now performed this type of experiment with a record 100-nm resolution, as described on page 311 of this issue1.

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  1. Stephen Ippolito is at the Semiconductor Research & Development Center and the T. J. Watson Research Center at IBM, 1101 Kitchawan Road, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, USA. sbippoli@us.ibm.com,

    Stephen Ippolito

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Ippolito, S. Polarized high-resolution imaging. Nature Photon 2, 273–274 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2008.61

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2008.61

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