Digital image analysis for measuring nanogap distance produced by adhesion lithography

Area of Science:

• Materials Science and Engineering
• Nanotechnology
• Metrology

Background:

• Adhesion lithography enables fabrication of metal electrodes with sub-15 nm undulated spaces.
• Existing methods lack a generalized procedure for accurately evaluating nanogap distances produced by this technique.
• Rapid advancements in adhesion lithography necessitate reliable metrology for process control and comparison.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a simple digital image analysis method for measuring nanogap distances produced by adhesion lithography.
• To establish a generalized and quantitative procedure for evaluating nanogap electrodes, particularly those with large width/gap distance ratios (>1000).
• To enable objective comparison of nanogap electrodes fabricated using different processes.

Main Methods:

• Digital image analysis of grayscale images.
• Calculation of average nanogap distance based on the area and perimeter of the nanogap space.
• Application to nanogap electrodes with large width/gap distance ratios.

Main Results:

• A quantitative method for measuring nanogap distances was successfully developed.
• The procedure effectively excludes subjective estimation, providing objective measurements.
• The analysis is applicable to nanogap electrodes with high width/gap distance ratios.

Conclusions:

• The proposed digital image analysis offers a simple yet effective method for nanogap distance measurement.
• This generalized procedure facilitates quantitative comparison of adhesion lithography processes.
• Accurate nanogap metrology is crucial for advancing nanotechnology fabrication.