nanoXFi™

nanoXFi™ is an innovative new x-ray imaging tool with powerful capabilities and a diverse range of applications. It provides nondestructive and non-contact element-specific imaging of surface and subsurface structures with better than 80nm resolution.

The nanoXFi collects and images fluorescence x-rays, characteristic of elements that emit them when exposed to electron beam or x-ray excitation. The imager maps the spatial distribution of an element of interest in the sample, resolving features at full resolution at depths of up to 2μm. Nearly all the elements of the periodic table with atomic number >4 can be imaged in this manner.

nanoXFi features:

• Element specific spatial mapping
• Nondestructive, non-contact imaging
• No sample preparation
• Short image acquisition times
• Attaches to e-beam platforms

Principal applications include semiconductor manufacturing, where electron-beam metrology tools are used to characterize production wafers. Spatial mapping of specific features, such as Cu interconnects in as many as three layers, enhancement the basic analytical capabilities of standard metrology tools.

The nanoXFi also attaches to Scanning Electron Microscopes and Electron Probe Micro Analyzers, providing users with powerful new imaging capability, allowing non-destructive element-specific subsurface imaging inside samples of interest. Resulting images are obtained by exploiting the ability of electron and x-ray beams to penetrate below the surface of the sample to procedure element-specific fluorescence images that contain depth information as well as structural geometry.

nanoXFi utilizes Xradia's proprietary x-ray optics and high-efficiency detectors to create high-resolution, detailed element-specific images that open new doors in electron-beam microscopy and metrology.

This material is based upon work supported by National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0512910 and No. 0620578 "Development of an Imaging X-ray Spectrometer". Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.