Numerical Aperture Increasing Lens Microscopy

Members: Tenzile Berkin Cilingiroglu, Bennett B. Goldberg, Christopher Robert Stockbridge, M. Selim Ünlü, Aydan Uyar, Abdulkadir Yurt, Mahmoud Zangeneh

Alumni: Roger Chen, Mesut Gorkem Eraslan, Stephen Bradley Ippolito, Fatih Hakan Koklu, Mark James Lande, Yevgeny Meydbray, Justin Israel Quesnel, Euan Ramsay, Shawn Andrew Thorne, Lukas Michael Thulin, Anthony Nickolas Vamivakas, Richard D. Younger

We have patented a subsurface microscopy technique that significantly improves the light-gathering, resolving, and magnifying power of a conventional optical microscope. The numerical aperture increasing lens (NAIL) is a plano-convex lens placed on the planar surface of an object to enhance the amount of light coupled from subsurface structures within the object. In particular, a NAIL allows for the collection of otherwise inaccessible light at angles beyond the critical angle of the planar surface of the object. Therefore, the limit on numerical aperture increases from unity for conventional subsurface microscopy to the refractive index of the object for NAIL microscopy. Spherical aberration associated with conventional subsurface microscopy is also eliminated by the NAIL. Consequently, both the amount of light collected and diffraction-limited spatial resolution are improved beyond the limits of conventional subsurface microscopy.

We have demonstrated the NAIL technique in two Si integrated circuit IC failure analysis applications: near-infrared inspection microscopy and thermal emission microscopy. Subsurface inspection of a Si IC using a Hamamatsu µAMOS-200, IC Failure Analysis System, qualitatively displays the significant improvement provided by the NAIL. We show the image obtained using a 100× microscope objective lens having NA = 0.5 in the figure at left compared with that obtained using a 20× microscope objective lens with a NAIL having NA = 3.3 in the figure at right. Features otherwise not visible can be clearly discerned using the NAIL technique. For additional information please see the publications below.

Publications

F. H. Koklu, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Dielectric interface effects in subsurface microscopy of integrated circuits," Optics Communications, Vol. 285, No. 7, 1 April 2012, pp. 1675

B. B. Goldberg, A. Yurt, Y. Lu, E. Ramsay, F. H. Koklu, J. Mertz, T. G. Bifano, and M. S. Ünlü, "Chromatic and spherical aberration correction for silicon aplanatic solid immersion lens for fault isolation and photon emission microscopy of integrated circuits," Microelectronics Reliability, Vol. 51, September/October 2011, pp. 1637-1639

A. N. Vamivakas, A. Yurt, T. Muller, F. H. Koklu, M. S. Ünlü, and M. Atature, "Coherent light scattering from a buried dipole in a high-aperture optical system ," New Journal of Physics, Vol. 13, No. 053056 , May 2011

M. S. Ünlü, "Pulse," EEWeb, No. 2, February 2011

F. H. Koklu, "High Numerical Aperture Subsurface Imaging," Ph.D. Dissertation, May 2010

F. H. Koklu, and M. S. Ünlü, "Subsurface microscopy of interconnect layers of an integrated circuit," Optics Letters, Vol. 35, No. 2, 15 January 2010, pp. 184

F. H. Koklu, and M. S. Ünlü, "Focusing Anomalies in the Vicinity of Dielectric Interfaces," Proceedings of IEEE Photonics Society 2009 Annual Meeting, 6 October 2009

F. H. Koklu, and M. S. Ünlü, "Subsurface Microscopy of Multilayered Integrated Circuits," Proceedings of IEEE Photonics Society 2009 Annual Meeting, 6 October 2009

J. J. Carvajal, "Confocal Annular Aperture Microscopy and NAIL Allow High Lateral Resolution in Backside Imaging of Integrated Circuits," MRS Bulletin, Vol. 34, June 2009, pp. 397

F. H. Koklu, S. B. Ippolito, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Subsurface microscopy of integrated circuits with angular spectrum and polarization control," Optics Letters, Vol. 34, 15 April 2009, pp. 1261

F. H. Koklu, A. N. Vamivakas, S. B. Ippolito, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Widefield Subsurface Microscopy of Integrated Circuits," Optics & Photonics News, December 2008, pp. 31

F. H. Koklu, S. B. Ippolito, J. I. Quesnel, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Subsurface Microscopy of Integrated Circuits with Apodization and Polarization Control," Proceedings of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society 2008 Annual Meeting, 9 November 2008

A. N. Vamivakas, R. D. Younger, B. B. Goldberg, A. K. Swan, M. S. Ünlü, E. R. Behringer, and S. B. Ippolito, "A case study for optics: The solid immersion microscope," American Journal of Physics, Vol. 76, August 2008, pp. 758-768

F. H. Koklu, J. I. Quesnel, A. N. Vamivakas, S. B. Ippolito, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Widefield Subsurface Microscopy of Integrated Circuits," Optics Express, Vol. 16, 23 June 2008, pp. 9501-9506

F. H. Koklu, A. N. Vamivakas, J. I. Quesnel, S. B. Ippolito, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Subsurface Imaging of Integrated Circuits with Widefield and Confocal Microscopy Using Numerical Aperture Increasing Lens," Proceedings of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society 2007 Annual Meeting, 24 October 2007

D. M. Karabacak, K. Ekinci, C. H. Gan, G. J. Gbur, M. S. Ünlü, S. B. Ippolito, B. B. Goldberg, and P. S. Carney, "Diffraction of evanescent waves and nanomechanical displacement detection," Optics Letters, Vol. 32, No. 13, 1 July 2007, pp. 1881-1883

F. H. Koklu, Y. Meydbray, E. R. Behringer, J. I. Quesnel, D. M. Karabacak, S. B. Ippolito, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Subsurface Imaging with Widefield and Confocal Numerical Aperture Increasing Lens Microscopy," Proceedings of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society 2006 Annual Meeting, 29 October 2006

P. S. Carney, D. M. Karabacak, S. B. Ippolito, M. S. Ünlü, and K. Ekinci, "Nanoscale Motion Detection by Diffraction of Evanescent Waves," Bulletin of APS Meeting, March 2006

S. B. Ippolito, M. S. Ünlü, B. B. Goldberg, T. M. Levin, and D. P. Vallett, "Laser signal injection microscopy of Si integrated circuits with a numerical aperture increasing lens," Proceedings of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society 2005 Annual Meeting, 22-27 October 2005

M. S. Ünlü, A. N. Vamivakas, S. B. Ippolito, and B. B. Goldberg, "Numerical aperture increasing lens microscopy for quantum dot and integrated circuit imaging," European Optical Society Topical Meeting: Optical Microsystems, September 2005

Z. Liu, B. B. Goldberg, S. B. Ippolito, A. N. Vamivakas, M. S. Ünlü, and R. P. Mirin, "High resolution, high collection efficiency in numerical aperture increasing lens microscopy of individual quantum dots," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 87, August 2005, pp. 071905

A. N. Vamivakas, Z. Liu, S. B. Ippolito, R. P. Mirin, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Numerical Aperture Increasing Lens Microscopy for High Resolution and High Collection Efficiency Spectroscopy of Single Quantum Dots," Proceedings of CLEO/QELS 2005, May 2005

S. B. Ippolito, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Theoretical analysis of numerical aperture increasing lens microscopy," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 97, March 2005, pp. 053105

A. N. Vamivakas, M. G. Eraslan, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Numerical Aperture Increasing Lens Microscopy and Spectroscopy," Bulletin of APS Meeting, March 2005

D. M. Karabacak, T. Kouh, M. S. Ünlü, B. B. Goldberg, and K. Ekinci, "Solid Immersion Lens Microscopy Techniques for Enhanced Optical Displacement Detection in Nanoelectromechanical Systems," Bulletin of APS Meeting, March 2005

S. B. Ippolito, "High spatial resolution subsurface microscopy," Ph.D. Dissertation, May 2004

B. B. Goldberg, A. K. Swan, L. Moiseev, M. Dogan, W. C. Karl, B. J. Davis, C. R. Cantor, S. B. Ippolito, S. A. Thorne, M. G. Eraslan, Z. Liu, M. B. Goldberg, and Y. Leblebici, "Seeing inside chips and cells: High-resolution subsurface imaging of integrated circuits, quantum dots and subcellular structures," Proceedings of CLEO/QELS 2004, May 2004

S. B. Ippolito, S. A. Thorne, M. G. Eraslan, B. B. Goldberg, M. S. Ünlü, and Y. Leblebici, "High spatial resolution subsurface thermal emission microscopy," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 84, No. 22, 31 May 2004, pp. 4529

M. S. Ünlü, M. G. Eraslan, Z. Liu, A. N. Vamivakas, S. A. Thorne, S. B. Ippolito, and B. B. Goldberg, "Application of Solid Immersion Lens Techniques to High-Resolution Subsurface Microscopy and Thermal Imaging," The 227th ACS National Meeting, March/April 2004

M. S. Ünlü, S. B. Ippolito, M. G. Eraslan, S. A. Thorne, A. N. Vamivakas, B. B. Goldberg, and Y. Leblebici, "High Resolution Backside Imaging and Thermography using a Numerical Aperture Increasing Lens," Proceedings of the 2004 Nanotechnology Conference and Trade Show, March 2004

S. B. Ippolito, M. S. Ünlü, and B. B. Goldberg, "Numerical aperture increasing lens (nail) techniques for high-resolution sub-surface imaging," United States Patent Issued, No. 6,687,058, 3 February 2004

S. A. Thorne, S. B. Ippolito, M. G. Eraslan, B. B. Goldberg, M. S. Ünlü, Y. Leblebici, and D. P. Vallett, "High Resolution Backside Imaging and Thermography using a Numerical Aperture Increasing Lens," Proceedings of the 29th International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis, November 2003

S. B. Ippolito, S. A. Thorne, M. G. Eraslan, B. B. Goldberg, M. S. Ünlü, and Y. Leblebici, "High Spatial Resolution Subsurface Thermal Emission Microscopy," Proceedings of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society 2003 Annual Meeting, Vol. 2, 29 October 2003, pp. 738-739

S. A. Thorne, S. B. Ippolito, M. S. Ünlü, and B. B. Goldberg, "High-resolution thermoreflectance microscopy," Materials Research Society Proceedings Fall 2002, December 2002

M. S. Ünlü, S. B. Ippolito, Z. Liu, B. B. Goldberg, and L. Novotny, "Immersion Lens Microscopy of Photonic Nano-structures and Quantum Dots," Materials Research Society Proceedings Fall 2002, December 2002

B. B. Goldberg, S. B. Ippolito, L. Novotny, Z. Liu, and M. S. Ünlü, "Immersion Lens Microscopy of Photonic Nanostructures and Quantum Dots," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 8, September/October 2002, pp. 1051 -1059

B. B. Goldberg, Z. Liu, S. B. Ippolito, H. D. Robinson, and M. S. Ünlü, "Time-resolved spectroscopy of individual quantum dots," Proceedings of SPIE: Ultrafast Phenomena in Semiconductors VI, January 2002

M. S. Ünlü, S. B. Ippolito, and B. B. Goldberg, "High-Resolution Subsurface Imaging of Silicon-Integrated Circuits," Optics & Photonics News, December 2001

M. S. Ünlü, B. B. Goldberg, and S. B. Ippolito, "Optical Microscopy Beyond the Diffraction Limit: Imaging Guided and Propagating Fields," Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Advanced Physical Fields, November 2001

S. B. Ippolito, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Comparison of Numerical Aperture Increasing Lens and standard subsurface microscopy," Proceedings of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society 2001 Annual Meeting, Vol. 2, 12-13 November 2001, pp. 774-775

J. Wallace, "Silicon hemisphere nails resolution," Laser Focus World, September 2001

S. B. Ippolito, A. K. Swan, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "High-resolution IC inspection technique," Proceedings of SPIE: Metrology-based Control for Micro-Manufacturing, Vol. 4275, June 2001, pp. 126-137

S. B. Ippolito, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "High spatial resolution subsurface microscopy," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 78, No. 26, 25 June 2001, pp. 4071-4073

S. B. Ippolito, A. K. Swan, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "High Resolution Subsurface Microscopy Technique," Proceedings of IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society 2000 Annual Meeting, Vol. 2, 13-16 November 2000, pp. 430-431

M. S. Ünlü, J. Piqueras, N. M. Kalkhoran, and T. Sekiguchi, "Optical Microstructural Characterization of Semiconductors," MRS Proceedings, 2000

Collaborators

Hamamatsu Photonics, IBM Microelectronics, and FEI Company

Support

Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Grant No. MURI F-49620-03-1-0379 (Nanoscale Subsurface Spectroscopy and Tomography)

National Science Foundation under Grant No. NIRT ECS-0210752 (Advanced Characterization Techniques In Optics for Nanostructures)