Landing probes, especially on few-nm contacts or nanoscale objects can be painstaking and time-consuming. Here is how this process can speed up at least two-fold, with our latest nanoprober, the Robot NANO+
But first a little context: nanoprobers are usually moved by piezo actuators. There are two modes of operation: coarse mode (stick-and-slip motion) and fine mode (continuous motion). The coarse mode is used to approach the probe to a safe distance from the sample surface because it is very fast but it's easy to overshoot the target and crash the probe into the sample surface. To actually land the probes, one uses the fine mode, which has a limited range in Z.
Given the limitations in SEM vertical resolution, operators have to iteratively use coarse and fine mode in order to approach the sample safely and to finally land the probes. This back-and-forth takes a lot of time and patience.
To address this challenge, we are introducing the Robot NANO+ with an extended fine-mode range in Z of 15 µm! Now users can quickly position a probe far away from the sample using the coarse mode and safely continue landing in the fine-mode until getting a stable electrical contact.
Landing probes, even on the latest technology nodes and under low kV, has become at least twice faster and much easier and safer!
Read our full Technical Paper on this topic: here
