Film Thickness-Profile Measurement Using Iterative Peak Separation Structured Illumination Microscopy

Abstract

The surface and thickness distribution measurement for transparent film is of interest for electronics and packaging materials. Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is a prospective technique for measuring film due to its high accuracy and efficiency. However, when the distance between adjacent layers becomes close, the peaks of the modulation depth response (MDR) start to overlap and interfere with the peak extraction, which restricts SIM development in the field of film measurement. In this paper, an iterative peak separation algorithm is creatively applied in the SIM-based technique, providing a precise peak identification even as the MDR peaks overlap and bend into one. Compared with the traditional method, the proposed method has a lower detection threshold for thickness. The experiments and theoretical analysis are elaborated to demonstrate the feasibility of the mentioned method.

Keywords

• optical measurement
• film thickness
• surface topography
• microscopy