Non destructive evaluation in micro dimensions

Characteristics of defects with micro and nanometer sizes, local variations in material properties, and localized strains and deformations are critical for predicting the reliability of microelectronic devices, MEMS and nanostructured material systems. Microscopic, nondestructive evaluation methods are capable of detecting near surface defects of nanometer size. The presentation will give an overview of microscopic NDE methods and show examples of scanning probe, acoustic, thermal and optical microscopy.