Imaging Spectroscopic Ellipsometer

Imaging Spectroscopic Ellipsometry

Park’s Imaging Spectroscopic Ellipsometers combine the benefits of ellipsometry and optical microscopy in a single device. The unification of the two technologies creates a unique metrology tool that redefines the limits of both ellipsometric measurements and polarization-contrast microscopy. The enhanced spatial resolution of imaging ellipsometers (about 1 µm) expands ellipsometry into new areas of microanalysis, microelectronics, and bio analytics. Imaging Ellipsometry is an all-optical, non-contact metrology technique that excels at the layer-thickness and material characterization of micro-structured thin-film samples and substrates. The technique combines microscope imaging with the measurement principles of spectroscopic ellipsometry. It reaches a spatial resolution of about 1 µm, easily beating the limits of other optical metrology tools such as regular ellipsometers or reflectometers. The measurement is based on the sample’s interaction with polarized light. By means of computational modeling, the measured polarization properties translate into maps of the physical sample properties like layer thickness, refractive index and absorption, roughness or anisotropy.