Liquid Contact Probing inside the SEM

缩小电子器件的尺寸仍然是一个持续的任务，多年来一直是半导体工业的基础。因此，高分辨率的定性测量是必不可少的，旧技术的改进和新技术的发明是必要的。近年来，人们在纳米技术领域提出了许多新的材料局部表征方法。该行业最常用的表征技术是晶圆上接触探测，其分辨率仅限于微米尺度。本课题旨在利用液态金属的纳米液滴建立纳米结构与探针之间的电接触，将接触式探测提升到纳米尺度。因此，将在扫描电镜内制造一个完全自动化的机器人探测站。以Ga-In-Sn合金为电极，建立液-固-液界面，采用纳米精度的拾取和放置方法对探针进行对准。这将为被测设备提供一个简单且无磨损的电接触。该项目的最后一部分将以制造原型探头和定制校准套件结束，该套件利用液态金属进行纳米射频接触探测。此外，液态金属将作为功能材料，在纳米技术的电子和机械应用中，在扫描电镜内进行自动操作。

Downscaling of electronic device dimensions is still an ongoing task and has been the basis of the semiconductor industry for years. Therefore, qualitative measurements with high resolution are indispensable and the enhancement of old and the invention of new techniques are necessary.In the last years, a lot of new techniques have been proposed for the local characterization of materials in nanotechnology. The mostly used characterization technique in this industry is on-wafer contact probing, which has been limited in its resolution to the micrometer scale.This proposal aims at bringing the contact probing to the nanometer dimension by using nanodroplets of liquid metal to establish an electrical contact between nanostructures and prober. Therefore, a fully automatable robotic probing station inside an SEM will be fabricated. Pick and place procedures with nanometer precision will be used for a new alignment process of the prober by establishing a liquid-solid-liquid interface with the alloy Ga-In-Sn as electrode. This will provide an easy and abrasion-free electrical contact to the device under test. The final part of this project will end in the fabrication of a prototype probe and a customized calibration kit, which exploit the liquid metal for nanometer RF contact probing.Furthermore, liquid metals will be thoroughly examined as functional materials for automated manipulations inside an SEM for electrical and mechanical applications in nanotechnology.