9451220 Gupta Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) produces extremely high resolution image of a specimen surface that is quantitative in three dimensions. The image is precise enough to examine grain boundaries, quantify surface roughness, measure microstructural defects, provide surface profile, and even visualize the atomic configuration of the specimen surface. SPM is now a routine microscopy tool used for metrology and extremely high-resolution profilometry. Since scanning probe microscopes are commercially available with mature inexpensive technology, this proposal requests matching support from NSF for the equipment to introduce students in Mechanical and Microelectronic Engineering programs to scanning probe microscopy in a significant way. Students will use the equipment in a number of required courses, and in senior design/seminar/research projects involving open-ended problems. With the equipment, students will be able to visualize atomic configuration at material surfaces, understand fundamental relationships between bulk material properties and size-scale, see sub-microscopic structures in detail, and quantitatively characterize effects microelectronic processes have on material surfaces during integrated circuit fabrication. Microelectronic engineers and mechanical engineers working together to design and build prototypes of micro-electromechanical systems will also be able to characterize their prototypes with the SPM equipment.
