Introduction

FR-μProbe is a miniaturized turn-key solution for optical measurements at various modes such as absorbance, transmittance, reflectance and fluorescence  through optical microscope. The tool incorporates two optical components: a spectrometer operating in the spectral range supported by the microscope and a module that is mounted on the C-port of any trinocular optical microscope. The light source used for the measurements is the one available in the optical microscope. The size area from which the signal is collected is defined by the magnification of the objective lens used. Typically for a 50X objective lens, the monitored area is a circle with ~ 5μm diameter. The collection area could be further decreased by using objective lenses of higher magnification or smaller apertures.

Through processing of reflectance measurements the film thickness and optical constants (n & k) of the areas of thin and thick film stacks under investigation are calculated

FR-Monitor® is used for the tool control and processing of the spectral measurements and offers unique capabilities for a wide range of applications and versatility. It acquires in real time absorbance, transmittance, reflectance, or fluorescence spectra, and performs very fast computations thanks to the state of the art algorithms implemented in Visual C++.

In absorbance / transmittance configuration, all typical parameters such as A, T are calculated. Furthermore, other non-conventional parameters such as signal integration that are very useful in other measurements are calculated.