What Do You Want to Measure? Custom Metrology Solutions

k-Space has provided custom metrology solutions for over 15 years, developing both multi-point in-line measurements and large-scale off-line mapping measurements for a variety of manufacturing applications. Some solutions are based on our core technology portfolio, such as kSA BandiT and kSA MOS, while others require custom optics, measurement geometries, software, or the incorporation of other commercial sensors to measure the required process parameter specific to the customer’s production process.

k-Space has proven that it can deliver robust, production-worthy solutions despite the custom nature of the applications. These have included both in situ and ex situ measurements in industries such as solar, glass, automotive, and building products to name a few.

What do you want to measure? Email requestinfo@k-space.com with your measurement application and let k-Space design a custom solution for you.


k-Space Tools Aid New Research in Multiple Application Areas

To offer customers and potential customers insight into how k-Space tools are used in cutting edge research, k-Space maintains a list of applicable publications under each k-Space product. While these are by no means complete lists, they are an excellent resource for customers.

We have recently added nine new references to our website pertaining to kSA BandiTkSA MOS, and kSA UltraScan. We have also added a new application note which is based on a poster presented by First Solar, Keyence, and k-Space at the 2018 NREL PV Reliability Workshop and highlights in-line process control tools offered by k-Space.

The newly referenced publications cover the application areas of electro-thermal aging, lithiation of Sn electrodes, optical coatings, thermocompression bonding, properties of niobium films, and more. Specifically, the “Mechanisms of power module source metal degradation during electro-thermal aging” paper by Roberta Ruffilli, Mounira Berkani, Philippe Dupuy, Stephane Lefebvre, Yann Weber, and Marc Legros, examines aluminum metallization reliability in power MOSFETs [1]. They used kSA MOS to measure stress variation as a function of temperature from -90 °C to 350 °C. The figure above shows the measurement setup and a schematic of the kSA MOS laser array. The schematic shows convex curvature with increasing temperature and thus a tensile film, and a reduction in spot spacing with decreasing temperature indicating a compressive film.

Check out the references under each product’s page or under the references menu. If you would like your paper added to our reference list, please email us at requestinfo@k-space.com with your publication details and we will be happy to add it to our site.

[1] Ruffilli R., et. al., Microelectronics Reliability (2017).


Announcing UV/VIS BandiT!

The kSA BandiT is now available in a UV/VIS model! This allows reproducible substrate temperature determination for IR-transparent, wide band-gap materials including GaN, GaN on sapphire, Ga2O3, AlN, and AlN on sapphire. This is a direct measurement of the wafer or film temperature and not the temperature of a backside metal coating or the wafer carrier temperature.

Through the use of a new high power, laser-driven light source and a high sensitivity detector, k-Space is able to measure the temperature-dependent optical absorption band edge wavelengths from 190 nm to 500nm. Testing on these substrates indicate that wafer temperature measurements from ~200-1000°C are achievable, while still maintaining kSA BandiT’s insensitivity to changing viewport transmission, stray light, and signal contribution from substrate or source heaters. Visit the kSA BandiT page for more information.


Come Visit Us at These Upcoming Events!

34th North American Conference on Molecular Beam Epitaxy (NAMBE 2018) – September 30 – October 5, 2018 – Banff Centre, Alberta, Canada

German MBE Workshop 2018 (German MBE 2018) – October 11-12, 2018 – Fraunhofer IAF, Freiburg, Germany

The International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors 2018 (IWN 2018) – November 11-16, 2018 – Ishikawa Ongakudo & ANA Crown Plaza Kanagawa Hotel, JAPAN

For more events, visit k-space.com.

Thin Film and Industrial Metrology Systems

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