The MRS-6 is fabricated by using the highest accuracy electron direct write semiconductor manufacturing equipment available today. The pattern is built on a silicon wafer with ~15nm Cr film. This film, which is significantly thinner that that of the previous MRS-5, has superior edge quality. Imaging contrast in both secondary and backscattered electron mode is possible with field emission SEMs and newer tungsten or LaB6 SEMs. The overall size is ~ 3mm x 3mm x 0.25mm thick. The MRS-6 is fully conductive. No conductive coatings are necessary.
The MRS-6 has three types of pattern (the geometric design of the MRS-6 and previous MRS-5 are the same):
- Groups of nested squares spanning several orders of magnitude with pitches of 80nm, 100nm, 200nm, 500nm, ½µm, 1µm, and 2µm to allow for more testing the 80, 100 and 200nm patterns are repeated four times.
- Incorporated into our standards is an extension of the 1951 USAF 3-bar targets. These finer patterns have pitches ranging from 80nm to 3µm in 15 steps. They will find good use measuring the resolution and modulation transfer functions of state-of-the-art optical microscopes (UV, confocal, laser scanning, etc).
- The ½ µm square test pattern, consisting of ½µm squares with a 1µm pitch over a 20µm X and Y field.
Typical applications include:
- Electron Microscopy: SEM (secondary & backscattered electrons), TEM (for use with a bulk holder- the MRS-6 is conveniently sized at 2 x 2 x 0.5mm.
- Scanning Microscopies and Profilometry: STM, AFM, stylus and optical etc. The pattern height is approximately 15nm over single crystal silicon.
- Optical Microscopy: reflected, bright/dark field, differential contrast, and confocal (only for vertical illumination).
- Chemical mapping: EDS, WDS, micro/macro XRF, XPS, Auger & others. The pattern is fabricated using 15nm chromium film over single crystal silicon.
- Resolution testing: With a series of 3 bar targets (similar to the USAF 1953 patterns) ranging in size from 80nm to 3µm. Linearity testing: With a 1µm2 patch pitch over 40 x 40µm.
