Nano-Scale 3D Metrology for Surface Characterization and Inspection of High-Precision Manufactured Components

The scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been successfully used as an analysis tool for nano-scale materials in nuclear and special materials applications for many years. Recently, the large chamber (LC) SEM at Y12 has demonstrated its power in surface analysis and inspections of large specimens at the nano-scale without destruction of the specimen. This paper summarizes the research efforts conducted by UTK in applying state of art computer vision techniques to the LC-SEM imaging, particularly 3D characterization and inspection. Two or more LC-SEM images taken under appropriate condition (i.e., the specimen is tilted eucentrically in front of the sensor), combined with certain knowledge of the imaging process, have been used to infer the 3D surface of the specimen, which is extremely useful when detailed surface analysis of the specimen is needed.