Lacerm

Lacerm (Line and Contact Edge Roughness Meter) has been developed to measure line edge roughness (LER) of line-space patterns, and contact edge roughness (CER) of contact holes and nano particles on SEM images.

Although it can be used in other fields, this tool is intended for the roughness inspection in nanolithography such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, electron-beam (EB) lithography, directed self-assembly (DSA), and other high resolution nano-fabrication techniques.

Why was Lacerm developed in the first place, and what would be the benefits of using it?

Lacerm bears some advantages:

1) It is easy to use with a straightforward process of measurement. Users only need to select the region, which covers all the lines or holes/particles of interest, by a single mouse click and drag. They either have to separate the lines by pointing to their spaces or have to get the lines vertical by rotating the images. Lacerm automatically detects the edges and accurately measures the roughness regardless of the complexity of the edges and the tilt angle of the lines.

2) It is robust. It works with many types of images even the ones with a low contrast.

3) Possibility to overcome the so-called edge effect. The effect is often seen in SEM images because of the fact that the interaction of electron beams and the edges often results in a brighter area at the edges.

4) It is free. A great tool yet free of charge.