Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Intel have reported success in using an X-ray scattering technique to accurately measure features on a silicon chip to within fractions of a nanometer, or about the width of a single silicon atom.

The achievement could make the experimental technology known as CDSAXS (critical-dimension small angle X-ray scattering) a top contender in the race to develop new in-line process control tools for measuring vanishingly small features on next-generation computer chips.

“The semiconductor industry is running out of measurement methods that work nondestructively on their ever-smaller, next-generation nanostructures,” says NIST materials scientist R. Joseph Kline. “These are by far the smallest and most complex-shaped nanostructures characterized by CDSAXS. The results show that CDSAXS has the resolution to meet next-generation metrology requirements.”

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