Nanometric lateral scales as CRM candidates for AFM, SEM and optical diffractometer

National Metrology Institute of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (NMIJ/AIST) have designed nanometric lateral scales with a pitch of less than 100 nm for atomic force microscope (AFM), scanning electron microscope (SEM) and optical diffractometer. The pitches of the scales were calibrated by nanometrological AFM with differential laser interferometer (DLI-AFM) and the uncertainty in the pitch measurements was evaluated. The average pitches were quite close to the designed pitches and the expanded uncertainty ( k = 2) was less than 0.5% of the nominal pitch. It became clear that proposed nanometric lateral scales had sufficiently high quality as candidate certified reference materials (CRMs). A domestic intercomparison of the nanometric lateral scales is underway.