Microstructured surface measurements

Characterising form and texture

NPL provides a one-stop service for the characterisation of the form and texture of surfaces through an extensive range of facilities. NPL-designed instruments, such as the Metrological Atomic Force Microscope (MAFM) and NanoSurf 5, provide the highest level of accuracy. In addition to these unique capabilities, an extensive range of commercial instruments, including a white light interferometer microscope and a focus variation microscope, is available to support our customers.

To assist customers with worldwide acceptability of their own measurements, NPL delivers traceable calibrations of standards, such as pitch and height standards. These measurements are based on the purpose-built Metrological Atomic Force Microscope (MAFM), NanoSurf 5 instruments and our commercial white light interferometer microscope.

The key features of the MAFM are:

• Laser interferometers to provide traceable measurement of displacement in all three axes
• A measurement range in x and y of 100 micrometres
• Best measurement uncertainties of ± 0.2 nm for pitch and ± 0.4 nm for height

The key features of NanoSurf 5 are:

• Laser interferometers to provide displacement measurements in both the vertical and horizontal axes
• Traceable measurements of surface texture with a best expanded uncertainty (95% confidence) of 5.4 nm
• A prismatic slideway with a maximum traverse length of 40 mm
• A diamond-tipped stylus to trace the topography of a surface
• A metrology frame and scanning stage constructed from materials of low thermal expansion coefficient
• Determination of all ISO 21920-2:2021 and ISO 4287:1997 profile surface texture parameters such as Ra and Rsm.
• Calibration of various ISO 25178-70:2014 material measures as measurement standards (calibration artefacts) and type A to E material artefacts as described in ISO 5436-1:2000

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