Profilometry
Innovent possesses two stylus intruments for taking surface profiles of different kinds of working pieces. Creating well-defined edges in thin films it is possible to measure the film thickness with this method, too.
The Dektak 3ST (Veeco) can be characterized by a maximum scanlength of 50 mm on more or less planar samples. The height of the samples should be not greater than 3 cm. Using this device it is not possible to measured curved surfaces, the maximum measurement range in z-direction is only about 0,12 mm. The theoretical resolution in z-direction is smaller than 1 Angström.
In view of the measurement of curved surfaces and the creation of a 3D topography picture the stylus instrument PGI1200 (Taylor Hobson) can be used. The maximum scan length in x-direction is about 200 mm (in y-direction 50 mm). Due to the movement range in z-direction of up to 45 mm thicker samples can be measured, too, whereas the z-axis measurement range is about 12,5 mm with a resolution of about 8 Angström.
Powerful tools for data evaluation are the Ultra software designed for the calculation of form and roughness, the Ultra-Form-Analysis software designed for fitting the experimental data to the absolute radius, the best-fitted radius or to a line and the Talymap Gold 3D software designed for a comprehensive 3D analysis.
