Over the years, feature sizes on semiconductor wafers, data storage devices, and microelectronic components have continued to shrink well below the wavelength of visible light. Navitar has responded to this increasing need to further extend resolution limits for optical inspection with the NanoVue 248nm 4X Deep UV Zoom lens. The NanoVue optical system works in the deep ultraviolet (DUV) light enabling detection and characterization of yield critical defects while effectively doubling the resolution limit of conventional visible light microscopes. The Navitar NanoVue Zoom lens is ideal for original equipment manufacturers’ (OEM) new product development and integration into DUV instruments requiring higher throughput. The lens is designed to work with 248nm DUV infinity-corrected microscope objectives to enable optical inspection to under 0.1 micron and has a zoom range is 0.75X – 3X. When using the 100X objective corrected at 200 mm tube length, a zoom range of 75X - 300X is possible. The field of view (FOV) of 0.14 to 0.37mm can be achieved when using a 100X infinity corrected DUV objective with a 2/3” format sensor. With 0.1 micron resolution, the NanoVue 248nm 4X Deep UV Zoom is designed for the highest resolution applications. An optional motorized version makes the observation process and automation of critical image data acquisition even faster. According to Craig Fitzgerald, Navitar’s Vice President of North American Sales, “The Navitar NanoVue 248nm 4x Zoom allows customers to quickly develop new, flexible automated instruments that are feature rich, lower in cost and have smaller footprints.” The NanoVue’s small and flexible optical footprint enables a broad range of inspection and defect review tasks including DUV reticle and photomask inspection, thin film measurement, wafer inspection, CD metrology, failure analysis and process control. Using the Deep UV Zoom coupled with one objective, an instrument operator can zoom in on particular details of interest and achieve the exact FOV required while still resolving the important details.
