Quantitative model for near-field scanning microwave microscopy: application to metrology of thin film dielectrics

We have experimentally verified a recently proposed theoretical model for near-field microwave microscopy of multilayer media. The model addresses a near-field microwave probe as an electrically small antenna with a Gaussian-like current distribution that has a single characteristic length scale on the order of the probe size. Electrodynamic response of an antenna is calculated using Green functions in the form of integral transforms for electric and magnetic fields (both quasistatic and propagating), which are generated by a pointlike dipole. Experimental data were obtained at 4 GHz using a near-field scanning microwave microscope with aperture size of approximately 5 microm for a set of six SiO(2) films with thickness ranging from 0.1 to 1.5 microm. For each sample the probe resonant frequency was both measured and simulated as a function of the tip-sample distance, and good agreement between the theory and experimental data was observed. It was found that the model is capable of determining thin film dielectric constant with accuracy of approximately 5%-7%.