Massively parallel AFM with digital holographic readout

The general idea of Nanotechnology is not new – it has been studied since Nobel laureate Richard Feynman outlined the idea in a speech in 1959 – but it's only recently that the progress carried out in the various fields of material, optic, physic and engineering have allowed scientists to make Feynman's vision comes true. A large part of tools used to interact with nanoscale structures are based on scanning probes technology founded with the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer of IBM's Zurich Lab in 1981. The working principle is based on a micro-lever carrying a probe on its end which is brought in proximity of the sample to be manipulated/studied. The deflection of the lever induced by the atomic forces in the vicinity of the sample is measured by a sensor, allowing the reconstruction of the desired information, be it topographical information or information about the nature of the sample (DNA molecule identification, etc.). Today, the scanning probe microscope (SPM) technologies based on individual probe have reached their limit, principally by the slow data acquisition frames rate due to the intrinsic sequential readout of these systems. This last decade, great deals of efforts have been carried out for developing multiprobes SPM in order to increase range and acquisition speed. One obvious path is to make multiple cantilever probes on one chip which are controlled independently and coupled with a multiplexed cantilever detection method. Developed in linear or in 2D configurations, manufactured starting from very diverse materials and coupled with a large range of sensors, the scanning probes devices extend nowadays their applicability to many different domains, starting from the observation to the direct interaction with nanoscale structures. However, an important limitation appears when using multiprobes SPM with multiplexed integrated sensors. Indeed, as density of probes increases, number of contacts and interconnections wires increase and space for the leads decrease as much. Moreover, this contributes to enhance the complexity of the parallel electronics interface which is preferably wanted based on standard CMOS process. With regards to these limitations, current studies and development depict a limit up to 100 × 100 probes/mm2. This thesis presents an entirely new approach with the promise to break several of theses barriers and is to our knowledge the first successful experiment which shows how to overcome the interconnection limit. The setup proposed here separates physically an entirely passive probes array, without any electrical correction, from massively parallel CMOS standard readout electronics. The key idea is the readout of a Scanning Probes Microscope (SPM) array by Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM). This technology directly gives phase information at each pixel of a CCD array. This means that no contact line to each individual SPM probe is needed. The data is directly available in parallel form, at the acquisition rate of the camera. Moreover, the optical setup needs in principle no expensive components, optical (or, to a large extent, mechanical) imperfections are compensated in the signal processing, i.e. in electronics, given the system the potential for a low cost device with fast Terabit readout capability. The present contribution describes the working principle of the whole device. The acquisition sequence start with the recording of the holograms containing the cantilevers bending angular deflection information, a spatial filter derived from the intensity image allowing us to keep only the functional information from the whole area of the device. Thus, the phase information is reconstructed in real-time, reproducing the topographical information of the sample below the SPM array. The study of the requirements and the design rules leading to the micro-fabrication process of such a functional SPM array is also reported in this document. This process is constituted of four main steps: In the first two steps, a direct tip method which defines the shape of the probes is coupled with the structuring of the cantilevers in the silicon membrane of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. A Third step consists in a thin-film nitride deposition which is exploited for the functional out-of-plane bending of those passive cantilevers. Finally, the release of the devices is operated after a backside plasma etching, leading to perfectly functional 27 × 27 SPM array on a 4 × 4 mm square area. Using a commercial DHM for the acquisition of the phase information of this first 729 two-dimensional free bending SPM cantilever array, the real-time topography reconstruction of varied samples brought in contact is validated. Regarding to current storage technology's vertical resolution and scanning acquisition time, the approvement of the concept enlarged to a high density SPM array readout is finally discussed.

Highly sensitive vertical hall sensors in CMOS technology

Enrico Schurig

Vertical Hall sensors are capable of measuring surface-parallel components of the magnetic field. They allow therefore relatively easy conception of single-chip multi-axial magnetic sensors compared to solutions using horizontal Hall plates. The modern trend in the field of Hall sensors is to integrate them into electronic circuitry for signal processing. Before this thesis, highly sensitive vertical Hall sensors completely compatible to a technology adequate for co-integration of electronic circuitry were not available. This is the reason why we present in this thesis the developed knowledge that is necessary for the design and manufacture of highly sensitive vertical Hall sensors in CMOS technology. We first present the principles of the technology choice. A wide selection of CMOS processes is presently available, but in order to obtain optimal sensitivity we have to choose "the right" one. The performances can vary easily by 50% from one technology to another. The best choice are CMOS high-voltage technologies since they deliver n-diffusion layers with relatively low doping level and deep junction depth. We present a novel layout of vertical Hall sensors that has six contacts in the active sensor zone and is a development of the known layout that uses only four contacts. The additional contacts improve the sensitivity and reduce the systematic offset considerably. If we re-use layouts that were optimal for not-CMOS compatible technologies, we will see that the results are not satisfying. We have to develop our specific design parameters that are optimal for the chosen technology. The key for high sensitivities is the strong miniaturization of the devices down to technological limits given by the design rules, but sometimes even beyond that. Some of the design rules can be broken with benefit for the obtained sensor devices. In general, minimum contact sizes and contact distances are preferable as well as a minimum sensor thickness. The difficulty is however to find the absolute minimum before device degradation or even failure will occur. Our optimized sensors achieved voltage related sensitivities of about 0.04 V/(VT) and current related-sensitivities up to 400 V/(AT) that are comparable to existing CMOS compatible horizontal Hall plates. Such sensitivities were never reported for a standard CMOS process, without any additional pre- or post-processing steps. The miniaturization of the Hall devices has however also negative aspects e.g. an increase in sensor offset, noise and output non-linearity. Although Hall sensors have many advantages in comparison to other magnetic sensors (simple structure, low fabrication costs, very good linearity, robustness) they have the drawback of a big Abstract offset voltage that is often too big for many applications. This is why an enormous effort was made by researchers in the past to develop offset reduction methods for horizontal Hall plates. We state in this thesis that, in principle, the same techniques are applicable on vertical Hall sensors but for an optimal efficiency certain principles/parameters have to be respected. We reveal the relations of important parameters as the type of layout (number of sensor contacts), the use of single or coupled sensors, the type of spinning-current, bias level etc. In the optimal case we can obtain residual offset values lower than 200 μT for bias voltages up to 2 V. The spinning current method was originally developed for offset compensation, but it has other beneficial influences on the sensor output signal as well. It is capable to remove a large amount of flicker noise if the spinning is executes at adequately high clock frequencies. We show that the efficiency of flicker noise removal is dependent on the bias current through the sensor. We discovered another positive side effect of the spinning-current method: the elimination of the planar Hall effect. While the planar Hall sensitivity for our sensors is initially about 1% of the normal one at B = 2 T, we obtain with the compensation technique values of only 0.02%. After the presentation of general characteristics of the separate sensors, we present two microsystems based on the developed vertical Hall sensors. At first, we present a 2D magnetic microsystem which is well adapted for the construction of contactless angular encoders with a measurement range of 360°. We profit here especially from the very low offset (< 400 μT) obtained with the spinning current method, since offset is in general the main source of angular errors in such systems. Existing angular measurement systems need in general a special (offset) calibration of the sensor unit in order to achieve an accuracy of 2.5‰ full scale. We obtain such a precision directly with our system for a wide temperature range from -30 to 100 °C. With one specific sensor calibration for the compensation of residual offset, sensitivity mismatch and phase mismatch of the two axes, we attain a precision of about 0.5‰ FS over the same temperature range, a performance never before reported with a magnetic sensor system. The microsystem is therefore an excellent candidate for the majority of low-cost angular measurement applications. As a second example we presented the first fully CMOS integrated three-dimensional Hall probe, consisting of a combination of one Hall plate and four vertical Hall devices. The microsystem allows an application as a universal magnetic field probe in the wide field range from 0.1 mT to 20 T. The probe can be easily used for small volumes because of its small size and the fact that the signal processing circuitry already is directly integrated onto the chip. The precision as a 3D magnetometer is limited by the sensitivity mismatch of about 5% FS. The probe is an ideal candidate for low-cost teslameter applications with limited precision.

EPFL2005

Resolution and Complex Deconvolution in Holographic Microscopy

Yann Jérôme Michel Pascal Cotte

Interest in high resolution imaging techniques has recently multiplied due to their importance in bio-medical research. Quantitative phase measurements by holographic microscopy is an extraordinary tool to gain new understanding of transparent biological samples. The extremely high demand on resolution well beyond the diffraction limit, however, sets new benchmarks for imaging techniques. Digital Holographic Microscopy is an interferometric method providing access to the complex wave front. Its capacity to image amplitude and quantitative phase simultaneously makes it an attractive research tool in many fields of biological research. It is on the verge of becoming an appealing alternative to classical fluorescence microscopy. For intensity-based microscopy, however, super-resolution methods are well established. In this thesis, approaches to unleash resolution for phase imaging techniques are explored. Based on truncated inverse filtering, a theory for deconvolution of complex fields is developed. It is a post-processing method that does not require any additional optics in the holographic microscopy setup. Gain in resolution arises by accessing the object's complex field – containing the information encoded in the phase – and deconvolving it with the characteristic coherent transfer function (CTF). By efficient harvest of a diffraction limited bandpass, complex deconvolution is demonstrated to exceed the coherent resolution limit. A novel method, called a complex point source, serves to characterize the holographic microscopy system. It consists of a coherently illuminated nano-metric hole, located on a conventional microscope slide, most common in bio-microscopy. A thin opaque film is directly evaporated on the slide and the circular sub-wavelength structures are drilled with a focused ion beam. Theoretical as well as practical work on transmission properties of apertures confirms the advantageous signal-to-noise yield of proposed method. More abstractly, the thus gained experimental amplitude point spread function is demonstrated to be suitable for experimental CTF reconstruction. Herefrom, experimental parameters are extracted and introduced into scalar and vectorial Debye theory, called synthetic CTF, adaptable to realistic imaging conditions. Also, it allows to study the role of noise in the context of complex field deconvolution. The resolution power of holographic microscopy systems is systematically examined with pairs of nano-metric apertures separated by sub-resolution pitches. Theory of information content is elaborated depending on different experimental configurations. Resolution extends beyond classical Abbe's limit by introducing spatially a varying phase into the illumination beam of a phase imaging system. In a last step, the novel deconvolution method is generalized to three-dimensional image processing of complex fields. By combining scattering theory and signal processing, the method is demonstrated to yield the reconstruction of the scattering object field under non-design microscope objective imaging conditions. The suggested technique is best suited for an implementation in high-resolution diffraction tomography based on sample and/or illumination rotation.

EPFL2012

Complex index refraction tomography with sub ?/6-resolution

Yann Jérôme Michel Pascal Cotte, Christian Depeursinge, Nicolas Pavillon

The present invention discloses a method to improve the image resolution of a microscope. This improvement is based on the mathematical processing of the complex field computed from the measurements with a microscope of the wave emitted or scattered by the specimen. This wave is, in a preferred embodiment, electromagnetic or optical for an optical microscope, but can be also of different kind like acoustical or matter waves. The disclosed invention makes use of the quantitative phase microscopy techniques known in the sate of the art or to be invented. In a preferred embodiment, the complex field provided by Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM), but any kind of microscopy derived from quantitative phase microscopy: modified DIC, Shack- Hartmann wavefront analyzer or any analyzer derived from a similar principle, such as multi-level lateral shearing interferometers or common-path interferometers, or devices that convert stacks of intensity images (transport if intensity techniques: TIT) into quantitative phase image can be used, provided that they deliver a comprehensive measure of the complex scattered wavefield. The hereby-disclosed method delivers superresolution microscopic images of the specimen, i.e. images with a resolution beyond the Rayleigh limit of the microscope. It is shown that the limit of resolution with coherent illumination can be improved by a factor of 6 at least. It is taught that the gain in resolution arises from the mathematical digital processing of the phase as well as of the amplitude of the complex field scattered by the observed specimen. In a first embodiment, the invention teaches how the experimental observation of systematically occurring phase singularities in phase imaging of sub-Rayleigh distanced objects can be exploited to relate the locus of the phase singularities to the sub-Rayleigh distance of point sources, not resolved in usual diffraction limited microscopy. In a second, preferred imbodiment, the disclosed method teaches how the image resolution is improved by complex deconvolution. Accessing the object's scattered complex field - containing the information coded in the phase - and deconvolving it with the reconstructed complex transfer function (CTF) is at the basis of the disclosed method. In a third, preferred imbodiment, it is taught how the concept of "Synthetic Coherent Transfer Function" (SCTF), based on Debye scalar or Vector model includes experimental parameters of MO and how the experimental Amplitude Point Spread Functions (APSF) are used for the SCTF determination. It is also taught how to derive APSF from the measurement of the complex field scattered by a nanohole in a metallic film. In a fourth imbodiment, the invention teaches how the limit of resolution can be extended to a limit of ?/6 or smaller based angular scanning. In a fifth imbodiment, the invention teaches how the presented method can generalized to a tomographic approach that ultimately results in super-resolved 3D refractive index reconstruction.

2011