The development of accurate, noncontact surface imaging is key to implementing an effective metrology strategy to manage defect detection in high volume flexible electronic device fabrication. This paper presents the design of a compound, double parallelogram flexure-hinge mechanism (DPFM) based nanopositioning system with stacked coarse-fine adjustment DPFMs. In concert with novel Atomic Force Microscope (AFM)-on-a-chip technology, this coupled, multi-flexure positioning system is proposed as a probe-based metrology device for roll-to-roll (R2R) electronics manufacturing and shown in Fig. 1 [1], [2].
The structural parameters of this system have been designed to ensure the desired stiffness, range of motion, and resonant modes are achieved. The parametric design of this positioning system has been verified through Finite Element Analysis (FEA). The proposed system will achieve a scanning throughput of six, 60 μm line scans every 0.15 seconds for a total throughput of over 75 μm2/s at a lateral resolution nearing 50 nm and a vertical resolution of less than 20 nm. This will allow for the development of a statistical metrology framework to reliably measure and analyze nanofeatured, R2R manufactured, flexible electronics in a cost-effective manner and provide fast, continuous defect identification.
