Nikon microscope

Nikon microscope

Essentials
Full name	Nikon Eclipse LV150NA
Manufacturer	Nikon
Description	Optical microscope
Location	Cleanroom 1 (03.2.209A)
Responsibility
Primary	Nader
Secondary	Karolis

There is a Nikon metrology microscope in CR1. It is equipped with a DS-Ri2 digital camera and a motorized Märzhäuser Wetzlar Tango stage. Objectives are 5x, 10x, 20x, 50x, 100x. Ultimate optical resolution (Rayleigh limit) of the 100x objective should be ~400 nm (at 550 nm wavelength).

There are also two Olympus microscopes with a similar feature set.

If you want to resolve smaller features, you can use:

• JEOL JSM-7800F SEM
• Raith eLine SEM
• Philips TEM

If you want to resolve topographical features, you can use:

• Tencor profilometer
• Bruker Dimension Icon AFM

If you want to observe photoresist, insert the green filter at the back of the microscope body. Otherwise white light will expose your resist.

Usage rules

No booking is required, but please be flexible with regard to needs of other users.

The microscope should be left with the light turned off in the NIS-Elements software.

Do not leave samples on the stage or elsewhere in the working area, they might get discarded.

Save images you want to keep to Z drive, local files might get discarded.

How to: take an overview image

Scanning the area

1. Navigate to (outermost) points of interest, e.g. top left and bottom right corners of your chip. Consider turning off continuous autoexposure (Continuous AE).
2. For each point: right click feature > Add this Point to ND Acquisition
3. After all features have been added, scan the image:
   • Acquire > Scan Large Image...
   • or right click overview image area > Large Image: Scan Large Image...
4. The Scan Large Image window will open. Click the button with three green dots.
5. The microscope will now automatically take and tile the images of the area defined by the points.

Saving the image

1. Select a filetype that suits your needs:
   • Lossy (recommended for overview images):
     • Recommended lowest compression JPEG.
     • Low compression (high quality) images are indistinguishable from lossless images by human eye.
     • Filesize can be some tens of megabytes.
   • Lossless:
     • Recommended PNG or TIFF.
     • The filesize can easily be several hundred megabytes.
     • LZW TIFF compression can reduce the size in half.
     • PNG would be a quarter of the size, but only 8 bits per color instead of 16.
2. Save directly into Z drive.

Troubleshooting

The corners of the image are dark (vignetting)!

There is a mechanical spring that holds the microscope components together. It needs to be tightened by service. Please notify CR staff.

Remote access

• TeamViewer: Scope3-Nikon
• LogMeIn: Scope 3 (CR1) [CR1-NikonScope]