Alicona debuts Focus Variation

Brian Kyte, Alicona's director of Optical 3-D Measurement & Inspection division, recently sat down with MICROmanufacturing Electronic Media Editor Dennis Spaeth for a video interview during The 5th International Conference on MicroManufacturing (ICOMM/4M 2010).

The new metrology technique is at the heart of Alicona's 3-D surface measurement device InfiniteFocus, which is said to achieve measurement of most surfaces—including those with steep flanks and varying reflective properties—down to a vertical resolution of 10nm. The device provides dense measurements over large areas with a density of 2-16 Mio points of measurement.

Kyte also discusses a collaboration with the EDM Department Inc., Bartlett, Ill. Mark Raleigh, president of EDM Department, purchased an Infinite Focus system over a year ago and recently agreed to showcase Alicona's Infinite Focus system and the Focus Variation technique.

After working the system for just over a year, Raleigh said his shop has been able to prove tolerances of 1.7µm, and he predicted that he would be able to get down to 1µm within the next six months.