Bruker Receives Contract from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for N8 TITANOS Large Sample Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) System

Bruker today announced that it has been awarded a $1.1 million contract to supply a customized N8 TITANOS™ large sample Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) to the United States Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The instrument will be used by NIST’s Precision Engineering Division (PED) at its Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory, with a main focus on metrology applications which require traceable AFM (T-AFM).

The T-AFM instrument will provide fundamental traceable nanoscale length metrology for NIST, which serves customers in industries such as semiconductor manufacturing, optics and photonics, data storage and biomedical. The instrument will be installed at NIST’s Gaithersburg, MD facilities and will be used to measure various parameters such as height, pitch surface roughness, and line-width roughness. A requirement is on-board metrology traceable to the SI (International System of Units) definition of the meter, which is implemented through laser interferometry using 633 nm wavelength Iodine-stabilized He-Ne lasers in all three axes.
Bruker’s next generation N8 TITANOS was announced in December 2009. The system is designed to provide highest stability and precision in surface measuring applications down to atomic resolution. The single-plane architecture with rigid granite base provides significant advantages over multi-component metal translation systems. The N8 TITANOS can accommodate samples of up to 300 mm x 300 mm size, and can be equipped with additional inspection techniques, such as optical microscopy. Its AFM performance with lowest noise level (RMS (Z) < 0.05 nm) can provide highest-quality results for metrology measurements.

Dr. Frank Saurenbach, Bruker Nano Vice President for AFM, commented: “Bruker Nano has many years of experience in traceable AFM for metrology purposes. We have already supplied a similar instrument to the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), NIST’s German counterpart. This system has been in service for 6 years, providing excellent results. We are delighted to have won this important NIST order, demonstrating Bruker’s ability to design and manufacture highest performance AFM products.”

Dr. Hans-Achim Fuss, Bruker Nano Chief Technology Officer for AFM, added: “We are looking forward to NIST’s PED benefitting from various recent additional improvements to the performance of the N8 TITANOS. The even further increased stability of the system is designed to provide traceable AFM results of highest accuracy and precision.”