US 5,578,745 A · Calibration standards for profilometers and methods of producing them

Abstract

Adjacent shaped grooves are placed in single crystal structure with great accuracy and known dimensions by a combination of anisotropic and isotropic etching to produce a scanning probe microscope calibration standard with fine V-shaped grooves forming a prismatically shaped ridge or blade between them. A probe microscope to be calibrated is used to profile the tip of the ridge in a number of places along the length of the ridge. With knowledge of the sidewall angles and tip radius of the calibration standard both the flat tip dimensions of a probe with a flared tip and the tip radius of a probe with a conical tip can be calculated from the profile they produce.

Claims11

Dependent claims

In combination with a scanning probe microscope an improved calibration standard for performing measurements on a scanning probe installed in the scanning probe microscope comprising:

a supporting structure of single crystal material having a surface with either a 100 or 110 orientation with at least two V-shaped grooves, said grooves with sidewalls having a 111 orientation,
said grooves being located in closed relationship to each other in a way that their adjacent sidewalls form a sharp blade means for profiling with the scanning probe using the scanning probe microscope, said sharp blade means having a known tip radius and angle between its sidewalls for use in calculating the shape and dimensions of the scanning probe.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Calibration standards for profilometers and methods of producing them

Life of this patent

Calibration standards for profilometers and methods of producing them

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims11