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AVASOFT-ThinFilm for AvaSpec-2048 version 7.3 USER`S MANUAL

1. 1 2 Film Thickness Primer For thin layers the lower end of the wavelength spectrum will limit the precision with which thin layers can be measured Very thin layers will yield only part of a single sine The wavelength range from 200 400 nm can be very important in this case For thick layers the resolution of the spectrometer will be the limiting factor in the measurement as the sine waves will start to fuse together The upper end of the wavelength spectrum will yield the best results in this case as the frequency of the sine waves becomes larger with increasing wavelength These effects are illustrated in the following figures that show theoretical reflectance spectra for S102 layers on Si with a thickness of respectively 10 nm 500 nm 5000 nm and 50000 nm The wavelength range is 200 1100 nm in all four figures Rebectance t Petectonce CS IMSRSRERSSRLERARERSE orong BZA BRERA ZES EE Tibet add ew m ma px 10 nm 500 nm 8 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com cT Q N Q C A etectance 1 sah RS ABR ERSRTRSEE Retectace BREKRSRESSSSABRER Ow Ou die 5000 nm 50000nm 1 3 Layer Display Window The thin film input fields as well as the on line display of the thickness measurements and fit quality are situated in a separate window that will open on starting
2. 32 Edit Menu Edit NK File 92 2 Edit Menu Expand Cauchy File 3 2 3 Edit Menu Create New NK table from txt file 3 3 Setup Menu 3 3 1 Setup Menu Hardware SR I Setup Menu Wavelength Calibration Coefficients 3 3 3 Setup Menu Smoothing and Spline 3 3 4 Setup Menu Correct for Dynamic Dark AvaSpec 2048 only 3 3 5 Setup Menu Subtract Saved Dark 3 3 6 Setup Menu Strobe Enable DO1 Sur Setup Menu 1 kHz Enable DO2 2 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc Avantes website http www avantes com November 2008 email Info avantes com 13 13 13 15 16 17 18 18 18 19 19 19 19 19 20 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 24 24 25 25 25 26 26 21 21 27 ay ntes 3 3 8 Setup Menu Options 3 3 8 1 Setup Menu Options Check on Saturation 3 3 8 2 Setup Menu Options Autosave Spectra Periodically 3 3 8 3 Setup Menu Options Correct for Drift 3 3 8 4 Setup Menu Options Automatic Save Dark by TTL shutter 3 3 8 5 Setup Menu Options External Trigger Setting 3 3 8 6 Setup Menu Options Auto configure Integration time 3 3 8 7 Setup Menu Options Suppress Save Comments 3 4 View Menu 3 4 1 View Menu Scope Mode 3 4 2 View Menu Reflectance Mode 3 4 3 View Menu Channel 3 4 4 View Menu Graphic Reset 3 4 5 View Menu Autoscale Y axis 3 4 6 View Menu Change Graph Scale 3 4 7 View Menu Goto Preset Scale 3 4 8 View Menu Grid Enable 3 4 9 View Menu Progress Bar Enable 4 APPLICATIONS 4
3. Ets a x by connecting an IC DB15 2 interface cable to the high m density 15 pole Sub D connectors at the AvaSpec and Enter the number of pulses AvaLight XE When clicking the Strobe Enable pa ae Hen Te menu option a dialog is shown in which this number of zy pulses can be set If this menu option is preceded by a checkmark the strobe control function has been enabled To disable the strobe simply click the menu Lancel option when preceded by a checkmark 3 3 7 Setup Menu 1 kHz Enable DO2 Pin 2 of the high density 15 pole Sub D connector at the AvaSpec can be used to generate an 1 kHz signal This signal can be used to control an AvaLight LED light source in pulsed mode November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 27 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com 3 3 8 Setup Menu Options Check on Saturation Autosave Spectra Periodically Correct For Drift Automatic Save Dark by TTL shutter External Trigger Setting Autacanfigure Inkegrationtime Suppress Save Comments Dialog 3 3 8 1 Setup Menu Options Check on Saturation The 14 bit A D converter in the AvaSpec results in raw Scope pixel values between 0 and 16383 counts If the value of 16383 counts is measured at one or more pixels then these pixels are called to be saturated or overexposed Since saturated pixels can disturb the measurement results a lot of attention has been given in AvaSoft and the driver
4. Zoom features In each graph the same zoom features apply as in the main window except for scaling the Y axis with the mouse wheel However zooming in over the X axis while the measurement is running and the X axis is already scrolling will not be possible because in that case the X axis 1s updated with each new scan Clicking the pause button to take a snapshot will solve this problem Zoom in select a region to be expanded to the full graph To select this region click the left mouse button in the white graphics region and drag it downwards and to the right After releasing the left mouse button both the X and Y axis will be rescaled to the new values of the selected region Zoom out drag with the left mouse button within the white graphics region but in stead of dragging the mouse downwards and to the right drag it into another direction After releasing the mouse button both the X and Y axis will be reset to their default values Move X Y dragging with the right mouse button results in moving the complete spectrum up or down and to the left or right 44 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes 4 1 3 History Application Display Saved History Graph If time measurement data have been saved the resulting ASCII file can be displayed graphically by selecting this file in the dialog that is shown after clicking the Display Saved History Grap
5. 1 Applications History Channel Functions 4 1 1 History Application Function Entry 4 1 2 History Application Start Measuring 4 1 3 History Application Display Saved History Graph 4 2 Applications Wavelength Calibration 4 2 1 Calibrate Wavelength Application Perform New Calibration 4 2 2 Calibrate Wavelength Application Restore Original Calibration 4 3 Applications Process Control Application 4 3 1 Digital Output signals 4 3 2 Using the Process Control Application in AvaSoft 4 4 Applications Excel Output 4 4 1 Select Source Data 4 4 2 Enable Excel Output 4 4 3 Settings 4 4 4 Start Output 4 4 5 Stop Output 4 4 6 Optimization Notes APPENDIX A TROUBLESHOOTING How to rectify an incorrect USB installation November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc Avantes website http www avantes com 3 email Info avantes com 28 28 31 32 35 35 36 37 38 38 38 38 38 39 39 39 39 40 40 40 43 45 47 47 48 49 49 49 S 5 5 52 54 55 55 56 56 ay ntes Before you connect the AvaSpec spectrometer to the USB port of your computer you need to install the AvaSoft software first 0 AvaSoft Installation AV ASOFT ThinFilm is a 32 bit application and can be installed under the following operating systems e Windows 95 98 Me e Windows NT 2000 XP Vista If the operating system is Windows 95 or Windows NT4 0 use a standard RS 232 cable with male and female DB 9 connectors to connect
6. 2006 Avantes 5 N 030104151 File Edit Setup View Application Help Sen NE i aB E E History wavelength Calibration Integration time ma 350 Process Control WWavelendtt r Fr TF F Excel Output 4 1 Applications History Channel Functions 4 1 1 History Application Function Entry With the History Application VE E JB xl the output of Film thickness and or Fit Quality can be followed in a graph against time For a multichannel spectrometer up to 8 Measure Mad Scope C Absorbance f Reflectance C radiance functions can be followed simultaneously Function Definitio Gaectameler Ehsnel Wavelength limit Thickness limit Layers Ref sir DU nk 2 The functions are defined in Master HS MEL amp nm EN l Coat 5in2 them the dialog at the right which deemed E Te Fe om Upper soo nm ss cron is shown after the History Function Entry option has Function Display Setting been chosen v ES X a The functions F1 to F8 can be selected by clicking the corresponding TAB sheet at the top of this dialog Display Mo Graphics Ta Speed Up Data Processing Furthermore a number of CR P US general function independent Do nat save Function Output C Save Function Output parameters can be entered below of the function TAB sheets X Cancel Save HCF Load HCF 40 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email
7. Advanced Options E B x menu available under the Options menu in the Layer Display window The bottom part of this form allows you to select which algorithm is Thickness Step Size nm 4 used to calculate thickness values The default value is Match Fit Warning Level 0 25 Spectrum which is suited best for thin layers of well defined Narrow Search Steps B materials Narrow Search Boundary pn The FFT Model algorithm is suited best for thick layers and for materials where roughness of the material influences the reflectance value Show Response Curve p Select Algorithm f Match Spectrum The upper part of the form only applies to the Match Spectrum FFT Model algorithm id The Thickness Step Size value determines the interval between the lower and upper thickness limits at which the theoretical reflectance spectrum will be evaluated against the measured reflectance spectrum during the first global search The default step size is 4 nm By decreasing this value more theoretical spectra will be evaluated during the first step in the algorithm This will take more time but it can also increase the certainty of finding the best solution The graph at the left shows the quality of fit at the Y axis against the evaluated layer thickness at the X axis In this example the thickness limits were set to 0 nm and 1000 nm as shown at the X axis With a 4 nm step size this means that 251 sp
8. Edit Setup View Application Help Start Hardware Wavelength Calibration Coefficients Integration Smoothing and Spline 3 3 Setup Menu Correct For Dynamic Dark Subtract Saved Bark Strobe enable Dol 1 kHz enable D024 Options 3 3 Setup Menu Hardware This menu option displays a list of AvaSpec serial numbers that are VEZE x connected to the PC s USB port s and COM port s and which are not used by another instance of the application This option can be used to allocate a spectrometer to an application for example ifone 7 spectrometer is running with AvaSoft Full and another spectrometer 031101451 Avallable spectrometer needs to run with AvaSoft Raman software But it can also be used 020800641 to run multiple spectrometers simultaneously just by restarting AvaSoft multiple times er Ok Cancel After clicking the OK button AvaSoft will communicate with the X Conc spectrometer serial number that has been activated in the dialog I A 3 3 2 Setup Menu Wavelength Calibration Coefficients After clicking this option a dialog is TEE Ta shown in which the wavelength E calibration coefficients can be changed manually Spectrometer Channe C Slavel Background i ici 0 503334 The wavelength X that corresponds to a UCM A rocess data only when In pixel number pixnr in the detector in Second Coefficient 2 04957E 05 Bina LAUR DUE
9. Info avantes com ay ntes The first time that the Function Entry dialog is activated all functions are not activated Function Type None To define a function the Function Type radio button needs to be changed from None to Film Thickness or Fit Quality After defining the function type the Function Definition and Function Display settings can be set The measure mode is fixed at the Reflectance setting Function Definition Function Definitio Spectrometer Channel Wavelength limit Thickness limit Layer Master e Ref s t DC nk dme um bd Am Coat i02_ thern Advanced Options To ans BID Upper pon aut Subst Si_ 100 nk el Function Definition Film Thickness In case a function is defined to display Film Thickness versus time the following parameters can be set Spectrometer Channel The default is Master but in case more channels are available this can be changed to Slavel Slave2 up to Slave7 The program will test if this channel has not been selected in another history channel You can define one Film Thickness definition per spectrometer channel The From and To edit boxes may be changed to specify the wavelength range in nanometers over which the film thickness needs to be calculated The Lower and Upper edit boxes may be changed to specify the thickness limits for the Film Thickness measurement The three different layer names can be changed by clicking the E bu
10. Ref Channel Time left until next Time left until next FOS channel switch FOS channel switch 0 00 25 Wavelength nm 34 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes Correct for Drift by Spectrometer Channel This option is available if the spectrometer system has one or more slave channels One spectrometer channel will be used as a reference channel which will continuously measure the reference spectrum e g the white tile in Reference Channel reflectance measurements or the cuvette holding the reference solution in Slavel transmittance measurements Changes in this reference signal e g because of drift in the lightsource will be used to correct the data of the other selected spectrometer channels The wavelength range over which the data can be corrected will be the overlapping wavelength range between reference spectrometer channel and the spectrometer channel to be corrected Corect Channel s If this option is activated a dialog 1s shown in which the reference channel and Slave one or more depending on the number of spectrometer channels that are available channels to be corrected can be selected After selecting the right x Cancel setup and clicking the OK button AvaSoft shows the following information Turn on your light source choose the right integration time and save reference Then turn off
11. can be measured simultaneously and the measured data at the reference sample can be used directly to correct the sample data Disadvantage of the correct for drift by spectrometer channel is that the data for reference and sample are measured by using two optical benches which may react differently on temperature changes If the drift 1s mainly caused by the light source such as a difference in flash intensity of the AvaLight XE this method of correction is recommended The advantage of the correct for drift by FOS 2 INLINE UV VIS is that it will also correct for drift caused by temperature changes of the optical bench Disadvantage 1s that the correction 1s sequentially so not every scan is immediately corrected Moreover there needs to be time available to switch channels Correct for Drift by FOS 2 INLINE UV VIS The FOS 2 INLINE UV VIS is a 2 channel fiber optic switch Switching between the optical channels can be done manually or by a TTL signal see operating manual or FOS 2 INLINE UV VIS hardware manual By connecting an IC DB15 2 interface cable between the AvaSpec and FOS 2 or an IC DB15 FOS2 2 if a shutter needs to be controlled as well from the AvaSpec the spectrometer can control the position of the switch In AvaSoft the bottom channel has been defined as reference channel while the top channel should be connected to the optical path that is used to measure the samples The Correct for Drift with the FOS 2 can be
12. click the Open button To B AN AMTESODO TF A th leave this dialog without displaying graphic files click the CANCEL button In the figure below a graphic file was selected The comments that were saved with this graph are displayed at the top of the graphical region together with information about amplitude at current wavelength amp integration time it and smoothing s settings at the moment that the file was saved and the name of the graphic file If the active spectrometer channels e g Master have Master File AVANTESOOO4 TFA Amplitude 30 02 smoothing 1 Spline OFF E November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 21 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes not been unselected with the View Channel option the actual data for the activated channel s will be displayed in the same graph as the selected graphic file By clicking the green start button the online measurements can be compared directly to the graph that was saved before The menu option File Display Saved Graph is preceded by a checkmark as long as the earlier saved graph is displayed To clear this earlier saved graph select again the menu option File Display Saved Graph after which the checkmark disappears and only the spectra for the active spectrometer channel s will be displayed 3 1 11 File Menu Convert Graph to ASCII This option requires that graphic files were saved ajx earlier
13. closed the FOS 2 remains in this position If you want to use the second method to correct for drift by saving a new reference see previous page click the checkbox FOS Reference Sample Reference at the bottom of the dialog When using the first correction method the integration time for the FOS reference channel can be set to a different value as for the FOS sample channel Remember to save a new dark and reference for the FOS reference channel after changing the integration time Determine a good integration time and save a FOS reference by clicking the white button Then switch off the light source and save a FOS dark spectrum by clicking the black button The FOS correction mode as shown in the FOS settings dialog can be set to Software or to Auto This setting determines when AvaSoft should switch channels during the measurements November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 33 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes FOS Ref Channel If set to Software the user determines when to switch channels The dialog at the right will be shown after the OK button has been clicked in the FOS Settings dialog As long as the Reference channel is the Blap edine iie e Active FOS Channel the data FOS channel switch processing does not occur in the 0 00 38 main window but a small graph as shown in the figure at the right shows the A D Counts measured at the FOS referen
14. data acquisition stops and the text on the button changes to a green Start If the Start button is clicked data acquisition is activated again and the text changes back to the yellow Pause again November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 43 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes Mtistory Channel Functions E SE E lax Exit Pause B Info amp The Save Reference and Save Dark buttons have the same functionality as in the main window The Info button shows the Function Entry dialog in which all parameters can be viewed not edited while the measurement is running By clicking the Print button the graphics that are displayed can be printed during the run First the printer specific dialog shows up in which the print options can be set For example if only one graph of the two in the figure above needs to be printed this graph can be selected by the page s radiobutton All graphics are printed full size on a different page In the left top corner of each graph a small square panel acts as a warning signal If the Fit Quality value exceeds a preset level set under Advanced Options the panel will be colored red The same will happen if the calculated thickness equals one of the thickness limit values The color of the panel is white if the fit quality does not exceed the preset level and the calculated thickness is in between of the lower or upper thickness limit
15. default setting in AvaSoft ThinFilm is to print the spectra in the same color as they appear on the monitor However if a color printer is not available the menu option Black and White printer can be enabled If this option is enabled different line styles will be printed if more than one spectrum is displayed e g dash dash dot dot dash dot To enable this option click the menu option and a checkmark appears in front of it 3 1 10 File Menu Display Saved Graph Select one or more graphic files to open E 2 xJ Look in 3 data 020800641 ex E3 My Network P Object name X Objects of type Thin Film files tfa Cancel LZ This option requires that graphic files were saved earlier by using the option File Save Experiment After choosing this option a window shows all files in the current directory For the ThinFilm application the extension of the earlier saved spectra is TFA To select graphic files from another folder or drive click El behind the current folder name The comment line for this file appears at the top of the graphical region in the a m pem SS E ioj xl main window Selecting multiple Sop ME E S SIR 0 S amp S facit filenames is not implemented for the tegration time ims jiao Aveese fa Wavelength nm Esa ThinFilm application 0i amp 10 31 1t 150 av 1 s 1 avantez ld tfa H Display Saver Select the name of the file to be Master displayed and
16. determine the thickness of a layer by either determining the frequency of these sine waves directly from the measured spectrum through Fast Fourier calculations or by calculating a theoretical spectrum for lots of different values for thickness and matching these spectra with the measured one yielding the best fit as the measured thickness Both methods are available in AvaSoft ThinFilm The FFT algorithm can be used if the range to be searched is too large to be calculated in a reasonable amount of time with the Match Spectrum algorithm or if the materials are not well defined The finish of some materials roughness can influence the reflectance values considerably The Match Spectrum algorithm is the default one It is most suited for thin layers of well defined materials e g those used on silicon wafers The Match Spectrum algorithm has a zooming feature that will speed up readings considerably A running range is kept from the last 10 values of the Fit Quality value This value is used as a marker for a stable measurement If this value drops below a defined level then the theoretical spectra will not be calculated for the full range between the lower and upper limit They will only be calculated for a limited range of steps above and below the current thickness measurement value A single value above the defined level meaning the fit is not that good anymore will undo the zoom and the full range will be calculated again
17. done in two different ways 1 By regularly switching to the FOS reference channel the measured spectrum can be compared to the saved FOS reference spectrum The differences can be used to correct the data that is measured at the FOS sample channel To be able to correct the sample data the following data needs to be available o Dark spectrum FOS sample channel o Dark spectrum FOS reference channel if integration time at reference channel is different from integration time at sample channel o Reference spectrum at FOS reference channel 2 In Transmittance Reflectance or Absorbance mode the measured spectrum at the FOS reference channel can be used as a new reference for the FOS sample channel To be able to correct for the difference in sensitivity between both FOS channels the reference material white tile or blank needs to be saved at the FOS reference channel as well as at the FOS sample channel This option requires an equal integration time for FOS reference and sample channel The following data needs to be available o Dark spectrum at FOS sample or reference channel 32 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes o Reference spectrum FOS sample channel o Reference spectrum at FOS reference channel The difference of these two methods of correction is that in the first method there is no relation between the data measured at both channel
18. edit fields become white and editable The edit bar shows the following parameters Integration time ms This option changes the CCD readout frequency and therefore the exposure or integration time of the CCD detector The longer the integration time the more light is exposed to the detector during a single scan so the higher the signal If the integration time is set too long too much light reaches the detector The result is that over some wavelength range the signal extends the maximum counts 16384 or in extreme case comes down towards zero Entering a shorter integration time can usually solve this Try to adjust the integration time such that the maximum count over the wavelength range 1s around 14000 counts When not enough light reaches the spectrometer likewise a longer integration time should be entered November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 15 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes It s also possible to let AvaSoft ThinFilm search for a good integration time by clicking the JAC button or by using the menu option Setup Options Auto Configure Integration time Since measurements are done in Reflectance mode new reference and dark spectra need to be saved after the integration time has been changed Average With this option the number of scans to average can be set A spectrum will be displayed after every scans This spectrum is the average of the scans
19. of the worksheet while data is being transmitted An error Call was rejected by callee will be issued if Excel is too busy Moving around the worksheet should not pose any problems 54 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes Save any alterations to your worksheet before starting the transfer to Excel You do not have to close the worksheet or close Excel 4 4 5 Stop Output If you want to stop the transfer to Excel give focus to AvaSoft and press Exit It may take a few seconds before the buttons appear v history Channel Functions Exit E _Info Fl Film Thickness nm Master Channel Output 355 5 Excel will not be closed by AvaSoft Save your work and close Excel the same way you would when working with Excel manually 4 4 6 Optimization Notes For greatest speed it is important to give the focus to Excel If you set the focus to AvaSoft Windows will dramatically lower Excel s priority You can verify this by looking at the Filling Cells progress bar in the lower left corner of your worksheet November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 55 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes Appendix A Troubleshooting How to rectify an incorrect USB installation Any USB device requires that the USB drivers need to be j installed before the device i
20. or File Start New Experiment November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 19 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ovantes 3 1 7 File Menu Save Experiment With this option spectral data is saved All graphic files will be saved in the experiment directory that has been picked by the option File Load Experiment or File Start New Experiment Saving graphic files if one spectrometer channel is enabled First a window appears in which a line of comments can be entered to the saved graph Next a file will be saved that contains the saved spectrum data and the line of comments The name of this file starts with the experiment name directly followed by the sequence number of the saved spectrum The extension of this file is TFA which stands for Thin Film Application Before saving the name of the graphic file is displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the screen After saving the sequence number is automatically incremented by one Saving graphic files if multiple spectrometer channels have been enabled If graphic files are saved while more than one channel is viewed at the same time see option View Channel then a graphic file is only saved for the channel selected in the Layer Display window To make it easier to select the graphic files later on with the option File Display Saved Graph all comment lines start with a short name for the channel at which the graph has been saved M for M
21. t 305 Reference sit DO nk m The bottom Layer Display is almost identical to the top one This form will be opened if you select Display Saved Graph from the File Menu in AvaSoft s main window It will be closed if you uncheck the Display Saved Graph menu item There is a single Recalc button instead of the three buttons in Coating Si02_ thetm nk m the top form Substrate si 1 DD nk m The Recalc button allows you to try different settings for wavelength or thickness limits or different nk files together with an existing reflectance spectrum You can also edit the advanced options by selecting Advanced Options Lower Display from the Options menu in the Layer Display window Pressing Recalc will recalculate the values for Film Thickness and Fit Quality 12 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc Avantes website http www avantes com Thickness Lower Limit nm 5 1 00 4 nm Upper Limit nm 500 0 556743 Fit Guality November 2008 email Info avantes com ay ntes File Setup View Applicaton Help 2 Main Window 2 1 Menu bar The menu s and submenu s are described in section 3 2 2 Button bar T sa PB S 88 S RO Bt EG fac th Start Start Stop button The Start Stop button can be used to display data real time or to take a snapshot in lt lt gt gt Cursor button After clicking the cursor button a vertical line is displaye
22. the AvaSpec to the serial port of the computer Installation program With each new spectrometer system an AVANTES PRODUCT CD ROM is included One of the options in the main menu which is shown after the CD ROM is inserted in the CD ROM drive is to install AvaSoft software After selecting this option a submenu is displayed in which AvaSoft ThinFilm for AvaSpec 2048 can be selected Installation Dialogs The setup program will check the system configuration of the computer If no problems are detected the first dialog is the Welcome dialog with some general information In the next dialog the destination directory for the AvaSoft 43 Choose Destination Location ThinFilm software can be ill i Thinfilm in the following folder changed Thedetwltdssimanon Setup will install amp vaSaft Thinfilm USB1 in the following folder directory is CAThinfilm7USBI If Ta duis im a different Folder click Browse and select you want to install the software to anather falder a different directory click the You can choose not to install AyvaSoft Thinfilm USB1 by clicking Cancel ta exit Setup Browse button select a new directory and click OK If the specified directory does not exist it will be created In the next dialog the name for the program manager group can be changed The default name for this is AVANTES Software After this the Start Installation dialog is shown After clicking the next button the
23. the program v Layer Display 3 Ioj x Options In reflectance mode the layer thickness will be calculated online spectrum Master for the selected spectrometer channel By opening a reflectance Use gt nm 250 to 1050 spectrum that was saved before see also section 3 1 10 a second Reference 5i 100 nk Layer Display window will be presented with the layer thickness EN M and input parameters for this saved spectrum This second Cena 5102 fthem nk window is available to view saved spectra or recalculate the thickness value with different input values You can view and Substrate sir UU nk Ej compare a single saved spectrum and thickness value in the bottom Layer Display together with the live values in the upper Less Layer Display Lower Limit nm 5 The following fields are available 355 f nm The spectrometer channel can be selected in the upper combobox Upper Limit nm sn Click the down arrow to select a different channel if available i Fit Quality For a single spectrometer this field will always display Master pua TUE The wavelength limits used in the calculations can be edited in the two input fields on the next line Default values here will reflect the full range of the spectrometer channel Be sure to view the Reflectance spectrum and limit the range here accordingly Without a UV light source you should set the lower limit to about 400 nm as the Reflectance spectrum will only contain
24. to the experimentname but with the extension sat For example if a graph in absorbance mode is saved to test0001 abs and if this spectrum contains saturated data then additional lines will be written to the textfile test sat The files with extension sat can be openend with any textfile editor for example Notepad 30 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes 3 3 8 2 Setup Menu Options Autosave Spectra Periodically With this option complete spectra will be saved E ava Parameler automatically in time The following parameters can be set Save As Fast As Possible no screen updates e Time delay before first scan needs to be entered Time delay betara Ub eet in seconds After clicking the OK button AvaSoft waits for this number of seconds before the first scan is saved seconds Time delay between scans 60 seconds 5 Humber of scans to save e Time delay between scans needs to be entered in seconds This defines the time between saving two subsequent spectra If this number is set to zero AvaSoft will save the spectra as fast as possible x Cancel e Number of scans to save the number of spectra that needs to be saved can be entered On top of the parameters that appear at the right a checkbox shows Save As Fast As Possible no screen updates If the white checkbox in front of this text line is marke
25. which saturation starts it Wl e Ur EE will return values 16383 counts The other detector types in the AvaSpec 102 256 and 1024 do not show this effect so no correction 1s needed Normally you don t need to use this third level for the AvaSpec 2048 but when 3 Cancel measuring a peaky spectrum with some heavily saturated peaks the autocorrect can be used To illustrate this a strong peak from the AvaLight CAL calibration line source was heavily saturated at 435 84 nm This caused the most heavily saturated pixels to return inverted 16383 counts pixel values figure below at the left In the right figure the saturation detection has been set to the third level which will not only detect the saturated pixels at 16383 counts but also detect and correct the inverted saturated pixels Disadvantage of the autocorrect detection level is that processing the saturated scans by the application takes more time Log saturated pizel areas to screen Log saturated pixel areas to file on Save Measurement 28 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com antes saturated Master channel Scope Values saturated Master channel Scope Values Saturation Notification If the saturation detection has not been switched off the spectrometer channel statusbar will show the text label saturated as long as one or more pixels of that spectrometer channel
26. 04 324 3 file and can be restored in the future by selecting the menu option View Goto Preset Scale or by clicking the corresponding button in the button bar 3 4 7 View Menu Goto Preset Scale By clicking this menu option the scale for X and Y axis will be set to a range that has been set before The same result can be achieved by clicking the Goto Preset Scale Button in the button bar 3 4 8 View Menu Grid Enable With the Grid Enable option activated a grid will be displayed in the graph 3 4 9 View Menu Progress Bar Enable If using long integration times or a high number of averages it can take a few or more seconds before a new scan is received by the application To get an indication about how much time it will take until the next scan arrives a progress bar can be displayed After enabling the progress bar by clicking the menu option it will be displayed after the next scan has arrived The progress bar will be shown only if the time between scans is more than one second The time between scans is roughly the integration time multiplied with the number of averages However if the number of averages 1s high the time between scans can get longer because of the overhead time that is spent on transmitting the high number of average spectra to the PC November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 39 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com 4 Applications v EYEE 7 0 Thin Film
27. 16 33 37 59616760 355 7763 14 03 2003 16 33 37 59617231 355 8701 14 03 2003 16 33 38 59617662 355832 MMNMAvasoftData Gereed poeoOocococococcoccoccococcooczcocococcocococcozcoccococococococcococzccococ poOococcocococcoccocococcoococococcococzcocozcozcoccococococoocococcococococzcccc poeoOococcococococcococococococcocococococcoococococcocoocococcocococooczczcc sc es se ee ee pa ke es I I I e e e e e e e e e e e e e E I e e e e a e E a a a e ee a e I I e I e e e a e I I e I e a e e e e a e I I e INUM The sheet will be called AvaSoft Data the columns contain the following data Column A contains a data time value formatted as dd mm yyyy hh mm ss This 1s a floating point value in which the integer part 1s the day number starting at January 1 1900 with day 1 The fractional part represents a decimal time value where 0 5 is 12 00 h noon and 0 75 is 18 00 h This way differences in date time can be readily calculated by subtracting values which would be much more difficult 1f this was a text representation Column B contains a time value representing the elapsed milliseconds since midnight This value does not have a one millisecond resolution Remember that Windows is not a real time operating system It can however be used as a reasonably accurate indicator of the time that passes between scans Columns C through J contain the 8 different History Channel values For unse
28. 8 435 84 546 08 579 07 686 54 750 39 763 51 772 40 0 07 0 06 0 07 0 03 0 01 0 14 0 09 D 08 0 05 0 02 oai The include 2 order peaks option can be enabled if second or third order peaks should be added to the list of available literature peaks e g 507 30 nm as second order peak for 253 65 In most spectrometers the second order effects are eliminated by filters or coatings but if these options have not been added to the spectrometer and second order peaks are available then these can be included in the calibration The central column cells will be marked green if a second order peak is found and yellow if a third order peak is found AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc website http www avantes com 47 email Info avantes com ay ntes Press the Calculate button If your calibration is successful you will be asked to confirm new Qr 11 Points Used coefficients 3 Calculated Calibration Coefficients are Select OK and the new calibration will be applied Intercept 3 50135469030088E 002 immediately Coefficient 1 2 58869698249683E 001 Coefficient 2 8 12149333338425E 006 Coefficient 3 1 896686889053452E 009 Coefficient 4 0 00000000000000E 000 St Deviation 0 0857 At least 3 peaks are needed to successfully complete a new Range is from 350 nm to 888 nm calibration Try to calibrate with more peaks Selecting too Do you want to SAVE these
29. 83 counts before correcting for dynamic dark smoothing or averaging in which case the label saturated will become visible See also section 3 3 8 1 check on saturation November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 17 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes In sections 3 1 to 3 5 the five main menu options File Edit Setup View and Application and their submenu s are described in detail 3 Menu Options 3 1 File Menu Wg AvaSoft 7 0 Thin Film 2006 Avantes S N 030104151 File Edit Setup View Application Help Start New Experiment amp EM D mM LT wt 077 Average f VWavelencetl Save F Load b Print Black and White printer Display Sayed Graph Convert Graph j Exit 3 1 1 File Menu Start New Experiment After selecting this option a dialog box appears in which a new experiment name can be entered The experiment name will be saved as a filename with the extension kon This extension does not need to be entered After clicking the save button the current Enter New Experiment Name HE filename will be built up from the experiment name that has been entered Opslaan als C pictues z amp si and a sequence number starting at 0001 Avantes kon Example if the experiment name is TOP 3 Long Filename kon the first graphic file that will be saved in 3 New kon E Test kon reflectance mode will be called TOPO0001 TFA
30. ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes Zoom in select a region to be expanded to the full graph To select this region click the left mouse button in the white graphical region and drag it downwards and to the right After releasing the left mouse button within the graphic display both the X and Y axis will be rescaled to the new values of the selected region Zoom out drag with the left mouse button within the white rectangle but in stead of dragging the mouse downwards and to the right drag it 1n another direction After releasing the mouse button both the X and Y axis will be reset to their default values Move X Y dragging with the right mouse button results in moving the complete spectrum up or down and to the left or right Move Y if a mouse wheel is available on the mouse being used then the spectrum can be moved up or down by moving the mouse wheel 2 5 Status bar Master File AVANTESDOU2 TF Amplitude 69 56 Smoothing 4 Spline OFF 2 For each selected spectrometer channel a statusbar at the bottom of the main window shows information about the file to which the data will be saved amplitude at current wavelength and the current settings for the smoothing and spline parameters The field at the right of the Spline setting is used to indicate that the spectrometer is receiving too much light at a certain wavelength range 163
31. B port on your computer with the supplied USB cable Windows will display the Found New Hardware dialog Select the default option to install the software automatically and click next After the Hardware Wizard has completed the following dialog is displayed Found New Hardware Wizard Please note that if the spectrometer is Connected to another USB port to which it has not been connected before the Found New Hardware Wizard will need to install the software for this port as well Completing the Found New Hardware Wizard The wizard has finished installing the software for E AvaSpec USB1 Click Finish to close the wizard B Cancel Click Finish to complete the installation Windows Vista will install the driver automatically without displaying the Found New Hardware Wizard dialogs November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 5 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes AvaSoft Thinfilm can be started Windows Start Menu Under Start programs the group AVANTES Software has been added This group contains two icons With the red V icon AvaSoft Thinfilm is started The AvaSoft Help icon can be used to activate the AvaSoft help files these help files can also be activated from the Help menu after starting AvaSoft Launching the software After starting AvaSoft Thinfilm the dialog at MOET E Xx the right will be shown to indicate t
32. Coefficients many peaks can however lead to peaks that cannot be matched with standard wavelengths ces 4 23 2 Calibrate Wavelength Application Restore Original Calibration This option enables the user to restore the calibration coefficients to their original values i e the values that AvaSoft was shipped with If a new calibration was performed with a limited number of peaks or over a limited wavelength range the results could be less favorable This option allows the user to undo unwanted changes to the calibration 48 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes 4 3 Applications Process Control Application Avasoft Process Control allows you to operate digital outputs corresponding with preset levels of your history channels You can use all eight history channels 4 3 1 Digital Output signals AvaSoft supports 8 built in digital outputs on the AvaSpec one per history channel The output pins on the High Density 15 pole Sub D connector which are used for the process control application are listed in the table below So pin 5 is used to monitor the thresholds that are set for History Channel Function F1 etc HD DB15 pins used by Process Control DEN cu a connector Ov OT Wy GI N e eI WO ul CO J e N CO O1 2 Z J Hm Co An IC AVS IO15 1 8 interface cable is available to connect all
33. Wavelength nm The wavelength shows the position of the cursor which becomes visible if the cursor button is down The amplitude of the signal which is given in the statusbar at the bottom of the main window is the amplitude at the wavelength shown in this field 2 4 Graphical region The graphical region displays the data in an XY diagram with at the X axis the wavelength in nanometers and at the Y axis the detector counts After loading or saving a reference and dark spectrum Reflectance can be selected as the Y axis In this mode two graphs will be shown The measured Reflectance spectrum will be shown drawn with a thin line The calculated theoretical spectrum for the measured thickness will also be shown drawn in the same color but with a thicker line This second line is only drawn between the wavelengths entered in the Layer Display window Line Style editor New in AvaSoft 7 is that displayed graphs can be deleted or DeActivate AVAMTESODO1 ROH properties of the displayed graphs such as line style or color or Line Properties comments can be changed This is done by clicking with the right Edit Comment mouse button on the line in the graphical display A small line edit box will occur Border Equa Now the line can be deactivated or the line properties can ES Style ae be changed as depicted in the border editor or the comments E 2 can be edited Color E width fi Round Cancel 16 AV
34. Y axis will be set to a range that has been set before The same result can be achieved with the menu option View Goto Preset Scale 14 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com pie Graphic Reset button By clicking this button the X and Y axis will be reset to their default values The same result can be achieved with the option View Graphic Reset fac Auto Configure Integration time button After this button 1s clicked AvaSoft ThinFilm starts searching for an optimal integration time Depending on the maximum counts in the last scan the integration time will be increased decreased automatically until a maximum scope signal of about 14000 counts is measured During the search routine the changes in integration time can be followed in the integration time edit box in the edit bar A dialog will display the new integration time if the search is ready The routine can be aborted by clicking the button again before the search has ended a H C F button The History Channel Function button allows you to switch directly to the history channel function screen to start measuring immediately Of course first the functions need to be defined 2 3 Edit bar Integration time m f Average f Wavelength nm 546 80 When AvaSoft ThinFilm is acquiring data the edit fields are gray and non editable By clicking the red STOP button data acquisition 1s stopped and the
35. ally some sort of spectrum may be seen on the screen but it is possible that too much or too little light reaches the spectrometer at the present data collection settings This amount of light is controlled by the integration time AvaSoft ThinFilm can search for an optimal integration time by the Autoconfigure Integrationtime menu option under setup options or by the button AC from the button bar The integration time can also be changed manually as described in section 2 3 5 Now turn off the light source and save the Dark data This is done by selecting File Save Dark from the menu or by clicking the black square on the left top of the screen with the mouse Always use Save Dark after the integration time has been changed 6 Turn on the light source again Save the present spectrum as a reference by choosing File Save Reference from the menu or by clicking at the white square next to the black one Always use Save Reference after the integration time has been changed After saving a reference replace the reference material by the coated material Verify that with the coated material the maximum value of the signal is not overloading the spectrometer In most cases this will not be the case as the coating will absorb part of the light but for some coatings the light of the coated material will reflect more than uncoated reference material If this 1s the case a new reference and dark spectrum should be taken at a lower integration ti
36. are saturated Master File AVAMTESODO TF Amplitude 494 29 Smoothing 6 Spline OFF Saturated This is useful for measurements in reflectance mode because in these modes saturation can not be observed by looking at the number of counts like in scope mode But even in scope mode a spectrum can contain saturated pixels also when this is not directly obvious from the graph Examples are Smoothing The maximum pixel value of a peak can be saturated but is averaged with neighbor pixels which may not be saturated The correct for dynamic dark algorithm subtracts the dark values that are measured at the optical black pixels from the spectral data Therefore the saturation level of 16383 counts will never be reached with correct for dynamic dark ON The saturation detection in AvaSoft is done before the data is corrected for dynamic dark so it will also detect saturation with dynamic dark ON Monitor resolution The CCD contains 2048 pixels which is a lot more than the monitor pixels in the graph Since not each CCD pixels can be drawn at the monitor a sharp peak at one CCD pixel can be saturated although this is not visible at the monitor Use the zoom function if you want to verify if this is the cause of saturation Zoomed in Saturation can also happen at a wavelength range that is not visible because the graph is not at full scale Under all these circumstances the saturation label will be shown in the statusbar of the spectrom
37. aster S1 for Slavel and so on 3 1 8 File Menu Print After selecting the print menu option Thin Filn inl x the background colors in the graphical FE fdt s view Application em region will become white Ifthe menu Set BMS SIR D EEG fi E option Black and White printer see seentme ns mmm 21 xl next section has been marked the i Piinter line style for the spectra will also 100 Name nlw2ksentO2 HP LaserJet 1100 Properties E change from colored to black A 5 Status Ready dialog will be shown in which the title i hie e US for the printout can be entered In the ruis Comment next window the printer settings can 2 251 Copies be changed e g portrait or landscape I WENT Number of copie 34 printing printing quality etc After ze C Pages fromf tof clicking OK in the printer settings Y 35 Selection Hele m dialog the graph thickness and Fit 26 Quality will be printed as well as the c Eug most important input parameters Es n material wavelength range and 2 ma Em n us thickness limits The original graph Wavelength nm on will be restored afterwards on Master File AVANTESOO68 TFA Amplitude 29 89 Smoothing 4 Spline OFF Z the monitor 20 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes 3 1 9 File Menu Black and White printer The
38. ay ntes AV ASOFT ThinFilm for AvaSpec 2048 version 7 3 USER S MANUAL m ERE ee MA AvaSoft 7 0 Thin Film 2006 Avantes S N 030104151 Wa layer Display Bi x File Edit Setup View Application Help a So W asa SRI Be S fac tb E Spectrum Master Integration time ms Average 110 Wavelength nm ZE Boissin E o a EEENO0000000000000 Use A nm 250 to 300 Reference Si 100 nk Eg Coating Si02 them nk Ed Substrate si c OD nk ke Epp p 81 2 5 nm Upper Limit rm inno Fit Quality 0 013775 Master File AVANTESOOOS TFA amplitude 27 840 Smoothing 6 spline OFF November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes 0 AVASOFT INSTALLATION 1 GETTING STARTED 1 1 Quick Start Measuring and saving a Reflectance spectrum and a Film Thickness 1 2 Film Thickness Primer 1 3 Layer Display Window 2 MAIN WINDOW 2 1 Menu bar 2 2 Button bar 2 5 Edit bar 2 4 Graphical region 2 5 Status bar 3 MENU OPTIONS 3 1 File Menu 3 1 1 File Menu Start New Experiment 3 1 2 File Menu Load Dark 3 1 3 File Menu Load Reference 3 1 4 File Menu Load Experiment 3 1 5 File Menu Save Dark 3 1 6 File Menu Save Reference 3 1 7 File Menu Save Experiment 3 1 8 File Menu Print 3 1 9 File Menu Black and White printer 3 1 10 File Menu Display Saved Graph 3 1 11 File Menu Convert Graph to ASCII 3 1 12 File Menu Exit 3 2 Edit Menu
39. bogus noise information at very low signal values The next three fields show the filenames for the nk files used The default values are for a Si02 coating layer on a Si substrate Normally you should enter the same filename for Reference and Substrate The Reference field 1s available to enable use of a different uncoated reference material in case the substrate material is not available in an uncoated state November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 9 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes You can change the values for the filenames by clicking the E button to the right of each field Afterwards you will enter a File Open Dialog that allows you to select an nk file for many predefined materials selenides glasses J semiconductors metals J silicides _ nitrides 1 sulfides l others C tellurides _Joxides polyimides resiste ArchiOlin __Jresists_ Clariant resists MRT File name zl My Network P Files of type nk files nk Cancel E The lower and upper thickness limit values can be edited in the fields in the lower part of the Layer Display window If you are confident about the layer thickness select a narrow range here This will significantly speed up your measurement in the default Match Spectrum mode as it will limit the amount of spectra that are calculated for each reading The buttons at the bottom of the Layer Display w
40. by using the option File Save Experiment a E ME After choosing this option a window shows all TFA files saved an AVANTESODO1 TF To select graphic files from another folder or drive click H behind the current folder name If a graphic file is marked by a single mouse click on the filename the comment line for this file appears at the top of the graphical region in the Cs main window Selecting multiple file names can be eco iere AVANTESO004 TFA AvANTESODO2 TFA v realized by using the CTRL or SHIFT key in Objects oftype Thin Fim fies c zl Cancel E combination with the mouse If the CTRL key is pressed all the files that are clicked by the mouse will be selected for conversion If the SHIFT key is pressed all the files in between two clicked files will be selected for conversion Select the name of the file s to be converted to ASCII and click the Open button To leave this dialog without converting files click the CANCEL button The extension of the text files is TXT The text files contains the following information M test Comment line that was entered when the file was saved Thickness Measured 356 8 nm Fit Quality 0 019181 Coating material oxides S1O2 therm nk Substrate material semiconductors S1 100 nk Reference material semiconductors S1 100 nk Wavelength range 249 nm to 1050 nm Thickness limits 0 nm to 1000 nm 3 1 12 File Menu Exit Closes AvaSoft ThinFil
41. ce channel Active FOS Channe C Sample channel Reference channel 400 500 But 700 800 Wavelength nm When clicking the Sample channel radio button the FOS 2 switches channels and the corrected data will be processed as usual A small window will remain visible in which the FOS channel can be switched back to the FOS reference channel and measure a new reference spectrum If set to Auto switching of channels will be done after a preset number of seconds Furthermore you can select if you want to update the FOS reference spectra once every x seconds or only take one sample measurement once every x seconds In figure at the right the sample channel will be measured during most of the 60 seconds Once every 60 seconds the FOS switches to the FOS reference channel to take a new FOS reference spectrum that will be used for the epee Eee Tee a po ono correction f Continuously measure sample update FOS reference on switch Continuously update FOS reference measure sample on switch After clicking OK in the FOS Settings dialog the FOS will display one of the two dialogs below As long as the sample channel is active left dialog the measurement results will be processed as usual As long as the reference channel 1s active right dialog the measurement results will be used to update the reference spectrum and the A D Counts of this spectrum will be displayed in the dialog FOS 2 Sample Channel FOS 2
42. cting Application Excel Output Enable A checkmark will appear before the menu entry Enable to show the status of the option ME asofte 6 0 Thin Film 2003 Avantes File Edit Setup View Application Help Stop Sop ME EI E History Integration time ma reo Process Control Excel Output November 2008 Avantes Wavelength Calibration website http www avantes com Wavelength Enable Settings L T F YF AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 51 email Info avantes com ay ntes AvaSoft will write the data to two differently formatted sheets depending on user input in History Channel Function Entry and the Settings dialog You can enter the Settings dialog by selecting Application Excel Output Settings 4 4 3 Settings Wg Excel Automation E ril x Select Made C Export a fited number of scans to Excel Continuous Mode Workbook Select File Export Mode Scans to log OU Interval sec fo OF Cancel First select the mode you want Export mode You can select Export Mode by selecting the top radio button In this mode a predefined number of scans will be logged to a new worksheet that Excel will open Excel will format the sheet horizontally with the program adding a new row for each measurement written 52 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avan
43. ctivated FUNCTION 8 Not Activated Time Seconds Fl F2 15 42 16 2 42 273 4 0 0153 15 42 22 7 97 273 4 0 0153 15 42 27 12 99 273 4 0 0153 15 42 32 18 12 273 4 0 0154 15 42 37 23 24 273 3 0 0139 15 42 42 28 35 273 3 0 0151 15 42 47 33 38 273 4 0 0150 15 42 52 38 39 273 3 0 0139 15 42 58 43 61 273 4 0 0153 15 43 03 48 73 273 3 0 0162 46 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc Avantes website http www avantes com November 2008 email Info avantes com ay ntes 4 2 Applications Wavelength Calibration Please refer to section 3 3 2 for a description about the polynomial that converts the pixel number on the detector into the corresponding wavelength at the X axis in AvaSoft If a Mercury Argon light source AvaLight CAL is available together with suitable optical fibers an automatic wavelength calibration can be performed The recommended optical fibers used for auto calibration are FC IR008 2 8 um core Vis NIR 2 meters long SMA FC IR050 2 50 um core Vis NIR 2 meters long SMA FC UV050 2 50 um core UV Vis 2 meters long SMA An important precondition for a successful auto calibration is the absence of overexposure The easiest way to assure this is to select the check on overexposure option If the spectrometer is overexposed at minimum integration time a fiber with smaller core diameter e g FC IR008 2 needs to be used As an alternative the incoming light can be attenuated e g by using a neutral density
44. d the Automatic Save option will always save the number of scans that have been entered as fast as possible To do so the time delay between scans is automatically changed to 0 milliseconds at the moment the checkbox is clicked With this option selected the spectra will be saved 5 to 10 times faster compared to if this option is not selected This speed increase has been achieved by mainly two reasons 1 During the saving of the number of scans that has been entered the screen update which is very time consuming is not activated Instead the main window 1s temporarily minimized and the number of scans to save are counted down in a new dialog 2 No comment files will be generated Other factors that have a positive effect on the speed of the data acquisition and which can be set in A vaSoft are e Smoothing parameters Set smoothing to 0 pixels fiber slit 10 micron e Integration time e Averaging Furthermore it is recommended to keep the number of files in your experiment directory small a few hundred maximum because a large number of files in the same experiment directory has a negative effect on the system speed Although system speed is highly dependent on hardware and Windows activities in the background it should be possible to save complete spectra in 30 milliseconds this way If the automatic saving needs to be aborted before all spectra have been saved the Autosave Spectra Periodically menu option can be sel
45. d in the graph If the mouse cursor is placed nearby this line the shape of the mouse cursor changes from an arrow to a drag shape If this shape is displayed the left mouse button can be used to drag keep left mouse button down the line with the mouse towards a new position Moving this line shows the corresponding values of wavelength and amplitude in the main screen As an Set Big Step Cursor Movement xl alternative for dragging the line the small step and big step arrow Set cursar movement in nm for lt lt and gt gt buttons may be used or the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard 5 00 The step size for the arrow buttons can be changed by holding down the CTRL key while clicking at a single or double arrow button Cancel IN Save reference and dark buttons The reference button is the white button at the left top of the screen It needs to be clicked to save the reference data The same result can be achieved with the option File Save Reference The dark button is the black button at the left top of the screen It needs to be clicked to save the dark data The same result can be achieved with the option File Save Dark m Save experiment button By clicking the Save Experiment button an experiment 1s saved The same result can be achieved with the option File Save Experiment November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 13 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay nte
46. dows will display the Found New Hardware USB device dialog Proceed with the installation as described in section 0 1 under Connecting the Hardware 7 The AvaSoft software can now be started and will detect the spectrometer at the USB port If not please have a look at the Device Manager which should contain the Avantes Spectrometers Class as illustrated in the figure below The figures shows that 4 USB ports are connected to an AvaSpec spectrometer one AvaSpec USBI and three AvaSpec USB2 spectrometers Cl E File Action View Help B Avanbes Spectrometers BR AvaSpec LISB1 A Avaspec LISB Hg AvaSpec U5B2 Bb AvaSpec LISB2 oe Disk drives m i Display adapters HA DVD CD ROM drives ce Floppy disk controllers Don t hesitate to contact us if the problem remains unsolved 56 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com
47. ected again and the value 0 can be entered for the number of spectra to be saved November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 31 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes 3 3 8 3 Setup Menu Options Correct for Drift Correct Far Drift by FOS5 2 INLIME LIVI vIS Automatic Save Dark by TTL shutter by Spectrometer Channel Introduction When measuring the reflectance of a reference against time the output should theoretically remain 100 noise In practice the output value will not remain exactly fluctuating round 100 but the signal can slowly drift away The cause for this drift in the measurement system can be a change in temperature in the optical bench which causes micro bending of the components that focus the light at the detector but also a drift in the light source that is used to illuminate the reference sample To correct for the drift in the system it needs to be measured first This can be done with a 2 channel Fiber Optic Switch FOS 2 INLINE UV VIS in which case one channel is connected to the reference sample and the other channel to the sample that needs to be measured By regularly switching channels manually or automatically the measured deviation from 100 at the reference channel can be used to compensate the measured data at the sample channel The same principle can be used if a 2 or multiple channel spectrometer is available In that case the sample and reference data
48. ectra are evaluated in the first run From the shape of the curve can be concluded that it is very unlikely that the best thickness found minimum at 277 nm is not the optimum Decreasing the thickness step size will therefore not give a higher certainty for this material You can also choose to take larger steps here to speed up calculations It is of course also possible to miss an optimum if this value is set too high The 4 nm step size has been tested on a lot of different materials and leads in all tests to the right optimum The graph at the left 1s called the response curve and is available in AvaSoft ThinFilm to get an impression about the robustness of the solution that was found A detailed description about this feature can be found at the next page j 200 400 Bu Bu 1 O01 The Fit Warning Level can be changed if the default warning level is not correct for your setup If the Fit Quality value exceeds this warning level the Fit Quality field in the Layer Display will be colored red The next two fields Narrow Search Steps and Narrow Search Boundary allow you to fine tune the zooming feature that is part of the Match Spectrum algorithm A running range is kept from the last 10 values of the Fit Quality value This value is used as a marker for a stable measurement If this value drops below the Narrow Search Boundary then the theoretical spectra will not be calculated for the full range betwe
49. ed or to Auto For Film Thickness measurement the Auto option will set the Y axis range to the minimum and maximum thickness limits in the function definition menu Function Independent Parameters Display No Graphics To Speed Up Data Processing Save Function Qutpu Do not save Function Output Save every E Seconds Change Output File Save Function Output To File D testsHistory dat X Cancel Save HLF Load HLF Function Independent Parameters Display no graphics to speed up data processing Below the TAB sheets for function definition an option can be enabled or disabled to speed up data processing by not displaying the graphics during the measurements If an application requires fast data processing e g more than 10 scans per second this option should be enabled If saved to an output file the data can be displayed graphically after the time series experiment has been ended as described in section 4 1 3 History Display Saved History Graph Function Independent Parameters Save Function Output The results of a time series experiment will be saved to an ASCII file if the radio button Save Function Output has been selected A number of seconds between saving can be entered for data reduction in case measurements are carried out over long periods Entering a value of zero results in saving every scan The name of the file to which the data will be saved can be changed after clicking the Change Output Fi
50. een defined for using the digital in at pin 8 Many more customer specific features can easily be implemented For generating a 5V signal at pin 8 manually the handheld Perform scans continuously save first available spectrum if TTL signal is high pin 8 Perform scans continuously save first available spectrum as Reference if TTL signal is high pin 8 C External Hardware Trigger perform a single scan at rising edge of TTL pulse pin 4 v Automatically save on Hardware Trigger X Cancel November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 35 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes pushbutton cable IC Extrig 2 may be ordered or if the Automatic Save Dark by TTL shutter option needs to be supported as well an IC DB15 Extrig 2 Y cable can be ordered The different options which are shown in the dialog above are described below Perform scans continuously save first available spectrum if TTL signal is high pin 8 In this mode AvaSoft will poll the status of pin 8 after each arriving scan If the status of pin 8 is HIGH 5V the spectrum or spectra in case more spectrometer channels are active will be saved automatically as described in section 3 1 7 A comment dialog will not be shown instead the spectrometer channel number and a time stamp will be written to the comment file Note that the spectrum will be saved only if the signal is high at the moment of polli
51. en the lower and upper limit in the Layer Display window They will only be calculated for a limited range of steps above and below the current thickness measurement value The thickness range of steps 1s the product of the Thickness Step Size and the Narrow Search Steps both under and over the currently measured thickness value November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 11 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes A single running range value that is over the limit will undo the zoom effect and the full range will be calculated again After at least 10 readings the algorithm can zoom in again If you check the Show Response Curve checkbox the Layer Display will show a graph of the fit quality against layer thickness v Er Display Options Spectrum Master m Use nm 245 to 1050 Reference si 1 OO nk m Coating sio 2 therm nk Bl Substrate sit OO nk m Thickness Lower Limit nmn jo 276 7 nm Upper Limit nm 1000 0 023590 Apply Load Gave This allows you to monitor whether there are more optima present in your range You can also fine tune the zooming feature here The Narrow and Wide buttons force the algorithm to zoom in or out The Current Value is the running range value which is the absolute range in the last 10 values of the Fit Quality value Fit Quality Spectrum BvANTESOOD TFA Use amp nm 240
52. eter channel for which one or more pixels are saturated Information about the saturated wavelength ranges can be visualized and or saved by enabling the following options Additionally more detailed information can be retrieved in the following ways Visualize saturated pixels areas in graph Log saturated pixel areas ta screen Log saturated pixel areas to file on Save Measurement November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 29 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes Visualize saturated pixels areas in graph By enabling this option the spectrum in the main window will be displayed with a thicker line for these wavelength ranges where the saturation occurs alii xl om BRS SATIIQ HeuXxtH Ter anit tese jaca Ace p a irent fear Mate Fe AAEM tan AE hyi Cone OFT Rahurabed Log saturated pixel areas to screen By enabling the second option a small window appears in which the spectrometer ioj x channel number 0 Master 1 Slave1 etc and wavelength range for the saturated EE pixels are given 0 473 52 751 53 TIZ f5222 El Log saturated pixel areas to file on Save Measurement The third option can be used to create a file to which the saturated wavelength ranges will be written when a measurement is saved in AvaSoft When saving spectra in the main window Save button or menu option File Save Experiment the name of the logfile becomes equal
53. filter 4 2 1 Calibrate Wavelength Application Perform New Calibration The procedure to perform an auto calibration is as follows w EE Connect the fiber to the AvaLight CAL light source and to the spectrometer channel to be calibrated select Channel Present Standard Choose a suitable integration time so as not to Master gt i saturate the detector The peaks can be seen in loj x i November 2008 Avantes scope mode Select the menu option Wavelength Calibration Perform New Calibration The auto calibration routine will now search for a number of peaks initially it will look for 5 peaks in the data from the Master channel The spectrometer channel and the number of peaks to look for can be altered A new search can be performed by pressing the Find Peaks button The peaks are shown in 3 columns The first column shows the position of the peaks found The second column shows the position of a suggested standard peak if available The last column lists the difference between the first two columns You can edit the values of Iv include 2nd order peaks A Max Fit Order 213 Find Peaks Calculate Close the second column by selecting them with the mouse Select the polynomial order In most cases a third order polynomial will show an excellent fit see figure above 365 08 404 60 407 71 435 87 546 09 577 10 578 98 686 46 750 44 763 49 us al 365 01 404 66 407 7
54. h menu option Display Saved History Channel Graph Zoeken in tes HE Bestandsnaam History dat Bestandstupen History Channel D atafile T Annuleren After clicking the Open button the function output of the functions with function type Integral or User Defined is displayed against time Both X and Y axis are set to their full scale which is determined by the minimum and maximum values in the list m x EET anx The zoom features as described in section 4 1 2 can be applied to zoom in on an interesting time interval A description for the print button can also be found in section 4 1 2 Since the History Channels Output file is in ASCII this file can be easily imported in a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel The data in the file can also be viewed with a text editor like Microsoft Word or with Notepad An example of the file format is given on the next page November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 45 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes History Channel Functions Measurement Report Measurements started at 17 2 2003 Time 15 42 14 Integration time 100 ms Average scans Description of the Functions FUNCTION 1 Film Thickness at Master Channel FUNCTION 2 Fit Quality Master Channel FUNCTION 3 Not Activated FUNCTION 4 Not Activated FUNCTION 5 Not Activated FUNCTION 6 Not Activated FUNCTION 7 Not A
55. hat the USB connection has been detected a similar dialog will be shown if the serial RS 232 interface 1s used Spectrometer detected on USB Number of Pixels 2048 After clicking the OK button the main window is displayed Refer to section 2 for a description about the main window components A Quick Start can be found in section 1 if you want to start measuring immediately Detailed information about the menu options are found in section 3 Depending on the number of add on modules that were ordered up to four applications are available in AvaSoft ThinFilm which are described in section 4 e History standard e Wavelength Calibration standard e Process Control add on module Excel Output add on module 6 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com Getting Started 1 1 Quick Start Measuring and saving a Reflectance spectrum and a Film Thickness 1 After starting AvaSoft the green Start button needs to be clicked to start measuring 2 Connect the reflectance probe to the light source and to the spectrometer input port s and set up the experiment for taking a reference spectrum The reference spectrum should be taken from the uncoated substrate material 3 Enter correct values for materials wavelength limits and thickness limits in the Layer Display window Press Apply to save 4 Now turn on the light source Usu
56. his menu option is preceded by a checkmark the scope data is corrected with the dynamic dark algorithm It is recommended to leave this setting checked which is the default state 26 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes 3 3 5 Setup Menu Subtract Saved Dark This option is used to subtract the dark spectrum that has been saved File Save Dark from the raw scope data After starting up AvaSoft this menu option is always unselected because a dark spectrum needs to be saved or loaded before it can be subtracted If this menu option is preceded by a checkmark the scope data is corrected with the saved dark 3 3 6 Setup Menu Strobe Enable DO1 This option can be used to enable or disable an external strobe e g the AvaLight XE attached to an AvaSpec spectrometer The measured light intensity of the AVALIGHT XE is independent of the integration time in AvaSoft To increase light intensity the number of pulses per integration interval should be increased The maximum frequency at which the AVALIGHT XE operates is 100 Hz This means that the minimum integration time for pulse per scan is 10 ms When setting the number of pulses e g to 3 the minimum integration time becomes 30 ms It is recommended to keep the integration time as low as possible to avoid unnecessary increase of noise The AvaLight XE needs to be attached to the AvaSpec MMEA wi
57. i E experiment An experiment name has the file extension kon After choosing this option BESAS a dialog box shows all experiments that were El Long Filename kon aM saved earlier in the current experiment Cl ExLEROFI directory If the experiment name that needs to be loaded is in this directory select it and click the save button If the experiment name that needs to be loaded is in another drive and or directory move to this directory by Bestandsnaar amp vantes kon Fl Upslaan als type Experiment Files Annuleren b udi clicking the behind the current foldername For detailed information on graphic filenames see File Save Experiment 3 1 5 File Menu Save Dark With this option dark data are saved The name of the dark data file is dark dat where represents the number of the slave channel for which the dark data has been saved 0 represents the master channel The dark data files will be saved in the experiment directory that has been picked by the option File Load Experiment or File Start New Experiment 3 1 6 File Menu Save Reference With this option reference data are saved The name of the reference data file 1s ref dat where represents the number of the slave channel for which the reference data has been saved 0 represents the master channel The reference data files will be saved in the experiment directory that has been picked by the option File Load Experiment
58. indow allow you to Save and Load the menu settings The Apply button will produce a thin ini file in your main AvaSoft ThinFilm directory The information saved will be reloaded in the next session The Load and Save buttons allow you to save the same information to a different filename rcp for recipe in the recipes subdirectory and reload it at a later time These files contain information for all available spectrometer channels When saving the information for the channel shown is updated in the file The large type Thickness field and the Fit Quality field are read only The Fit Quality is defined as the square root of the average SSR sum of squared residuals when comparing a theoretical spectrum with a measured spectrum The reflectance values are normalized first by dividing them through the calculated reference reflectance The lower part of the window can also show warning signals when displaying thickness values to signal possibly incorrect measurements If the Fit Quality value exceeds a preset level described below under Options the field will be colored red If the Thickness field value equals one of the thickness limit values then this thickness limit value field will also be colored red 10 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes You can select more options by opening the Advanced Options v
59. installation program starts installing files During this installation the installation program will check if the most recent USB driver has been installed already at the PC If no driver is found or if the driver needs to be upgraded the Device Driver Installation Wizard is launched automatically click Next If the Operating System is Windows Vista it will display a message that it can t verify the publisher of the driver software select Install this driver software anyway 4 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com Device Driver Installation Wizard Device Driver Installation Wizard Completing the Device Driver Installation Wizard Welcome to the Device Driver Installation Wizard This wizard helps you install the software drivers that some computers devices need in order to work The drivers were successfully installed on this computer Y ou can now connect your device to this computer If your device came with instructions please read thern first Status V Avantes amp vaSpec LISB1 driver Ready to use n TN To continue click Next After the drivers have been installed successfully the dialog at the right 1s displayed click Finish After all files have been installed the Installation Complete dialog shows up Click Finish Connecting the hardware Connect the USB connector to a US
60. is around 14000 counts a dialog 1s shown in which the new integration time 1s given Since the integration time has changed new reference and dark spectra need to be saved before switching to reflectance mode is possible For this reason this option is only available in scope mode 36 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes 3 3 8 7 Setup Menu Options Suppress Save Comments This option if preceded by a checkmark disables the appearance of the comments dialog box if an experiment is saved as described in section 3 1 7 By default this option is OFF After clicking the menu option it will be enabled preceded by a checkmark November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 37 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com 3 4 View Menu v Avasote 7 0 Thin Film 2006 Avantes 5 N 030104151 File Edit Setup View Application Help Start E Scope Made ri Reflectance Mode Integration time ms Channel Graphic Reset Guboscale Y axis Change Graph Scale Goto Preset Scale Grid Enable w Progress Bar Enable 3 4 1 View Menu Scope Mode The display is set to Scope Mode showing a real time raw data signal with on the Y axes the read out of the AD converter and on the X axes the calculated wavelength 3 4 View Menu Reflectance Mode In Reflectance Mode the reflectance at pixel n is calculated
61. jitter of less then 0 5 ms one single scan 1s performed The spectrum is taken with the integration time that has been set in AvaSoft If the white automatic save on trigger box is marked each spectrum that will be recorded in external hardware trigger mode will be saved automatically Make sure that before the External Hardware Trigger is selected and confirmed by the clicking the OK button a 5V TTL pulse can be set on pin 4 To leave the external trigger mode the External Trigger Setting menu option needs to be selected and the None radiobutton needs to be clicked followed by the OK button However the spectrometer firmware will not return to normal acquisition mode before it receives the TTL pulse at pin 4 3 3 8 6 Setup Menu Options Auto configure Integration time After this menu option is clicked AvaSoft starts searching for an optimal integration time Depending on the maximum counts in the last scan the integration time will be increased decreased automatically until an optimal signal is measured The changing values of the actual integration time during the search can be followed in the integration time field at the edit bar If the auto configure integration time routine needs to be aborted before an optimal integration time has been found click the JAC button which is in the down position during the search or reselect the menu option Setup Options Auto Configure Integration time When the maximum peak
62. le button 42 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com Last option in the Save Function Output box is to enable or disable the possibility to create a backup file during the measurements If this option is enabled AvaSoft will create a backup file with the same filename but with the extension bak also in ASCII This backup file is updated every scan and can be used in case the filename that has been selected has failed to save the data for instance because of a power failure during the measurements Save HCF Load HCF buttons AvaSoft automatically saves all parameters function definition save options to the file hcf ini and restores these parameters the next time AvaSoft is started With the Save HCF and Load HCF buttons it s also possible to save these parameter settings to and load from a file with the extension hcf With this feature it 1s possible to save for each experiment a different HCF file so it can be loaded a next time the same settings are required The left figure below shows the dialog in which the name of the hcf file can be entered after clicking the save HCF button The right figure below which is displayed after clicking the Load HCF button illustrates how to select an earlier saved HCF file Enter History Channel Function Definition Filename Opslaan als cx speed t experiment 1 hcf ix ex
63. lected History Channels a value of 0 will be entered in the sheet The lower left half of the Settings dialog can be used to enter the number of scans you want to export to Excel and the time interval in seconds between two scans you want to log Default values are 1000 scans and no interval meaning as fast as possible Continuous Mode You can select Continuous Mode by selecting the bottom radio button in the settings dialog In this mode data will be written to a single sheet each scan overwriting the previous one In the lower right part of the Settings dialog you can select the workbook the sheet will be added to thereby enabling you to use your own calculations and graphs in Excel on live data from AvaSoft November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 53 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes Press the Select File button to select the workbook Please save an empty workbook using Excel if you don t have a previous workbook to open 4 Microsoft Excel continuous xls E B B x Bestand Bewerken Beeld Invoegen Opmaak Extra Data Venster Help 8 x D E E i e tT mte c i e gt courier new 10 B z U B X BES om 8 B SE S a A o m F1 Film Thickness nm Master Channel Elapsed msecs WL1 14 03 2003 16 40 54 60054332 355 7119 5 Please do not enter your own B formulas in this sheet 7 jas they will be o
64. m 22 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes v Avasofte 7 0 Thin Film 7006 Avantes 5 N 051206951 File Edit Setup View Application Help REX 3 2 Edit Menu Gta Edit ME File Expand Cauchy File Create Mew ME Eable From Ext File 3 2 1 Edit Menu Edit NK File NK files hold the information about the n value real part of complex refractive index and k value extinction coefficient of a material as a function of the wavelength These values can be listed in two different ways The first and most accurate way to list them is as a table mostly from 150 to 1100 nm with the n and k value listed for each wavelength with 1 nm increments for the wavelength The second way is with 6 coefficients the so called Cauchy coefficients These allow the n and k value to be calculated for each wavelength The latter way is less accurate but is the only one available for many materials AvaSoft ThinFilm can edit both types of file You can edit either the Cauchy values or the n and k values per wavelength You can evaluate the resultant n and k values in the graph Press Update Graph after a change to view your changes The Save button allows you to save the nk file Click the Cancel button to leave without saving NK File Editor E 10 x lakis steel Expanded Table Fixed n k values 633
65. m without Cauchy values but with a full list of n and k values 3 2 3 Edit Menu Create New NK table from txt file The format of the nk tables in the database are rather strict in their layout wavelength numbers should be incremented with 1 nanometer starting at 150nm and ending at 1 100nm Also the decimal seperator and column seperator should be respectively a period and comma Moreover the first 4 lines in the nk file is reserved for respectively title fixed wavelength wavelength range and cauchy coefficients The menu option Create New NK table from txt file has been added to allow an easy import of custom specific materials with known nk tables The data in the textfile txt extension should hold 3 columns wavelength n value k value The wavelength incrementation 1s not restricted linear interpolation will be used to convert the txt file to a nk file The decimal seperator can be a period or comma and the column separator a space tab semicolon or other character s After clicking the menu option you will be asked to select a txt that should be converted to the nk format After the conversion the nk file can be displayed edited with the Edit NK File menu option and selected in the layerdisplay window 24 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes v EEE 7 0 Thin Film 2006 Avantes 5 N 030104151 File
66. me at which the coated material will not overload the spectrometer 7 Click at the reflectance R button to switch to reflectance mode This will also start the Film Thickness measurements displayed in the Layer Display window By clicking the red stop button the data acquisition is stopped and the last acquired spectrum is shown in static mode The data acquisition can be started again by clicking the same button which now shows a green Start 8 To save the spectrum in Reflectance mode choose File Save Experiment from the menu or click the Save Experiment button from the button bar 9 To improve the Signal Noise ratio a number of spectra may be averaged To do this the value in the white average box in the main window next to integration time can be increased The value can only be changed in static mode When AvaSoft is acquiring data the average box becomes gray November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 7 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes As light is reflected from both sides of a transparent thin film on a reflective surface an interference spectrum is formed This spectrum looks generally like a sine wave with a frequency that decreases with the wavelength a chirp The thickness of the layer determines the frequency of the sine wave at a given wavelength where a larger thickness will render a higher frequency 1 e more waves visible This means that you can
67. n 227000 k 3 37000 Wavelength nm ano oko Cauchy values ni 2 27500 k1 3 37000 EE n2 0 0000E 000 k2 0 0000E 000 po n3 0 0000E 000 k3 0 0000E 000 f Wavelength Range 150 nm to 1100 nm 0 LI LI I 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 1 0001 050 1 100 Wavelength nm Save Cancel An example of a nk file with Cauchy coefficients being edited November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 23 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com NK File Editor Name Si cr 1 00 amp spnes mod Expanded T able 15666 Fixed n k values A 633 n 387140 k 0 01 5a Zauchy values ni NEN KI NEN 0 50000 2 15000 n2 k2 0 50000 2 15000 a oo gooo 0 50000 2 15000 0 50000 2 15000 Wavelength Range 50 nm to 100 nmi 8 580088 2 158088 n k 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 1 0001 050 1 100 Wavelength nm Save Cancel Update Graph An example of a nk file with a full list of n and k values being edited 3 2 2 Edit Menu Expand Cauchy File You might want to change a nk file with Cauchy values to one with a full list of n and k values in order to fine tune the values without bothering with the Cauchy formula This option allows you to do just that Load an unexpanded nk file with Cauchy values and save it in an expanded for
68. ng which is the moment that AvaSoft receives a new spectrum from the data acquisition driver If a short TTL pulse is generated at pin 8 there 1s a big chance that the spectrum is not saved To save one spectrum the duration of the TTL signal should therefore be as long as the product of integration time and number of scans to average In time critical situations it is recommended to use the External Hardware Trigger Mode Perform scans continuously save first available spectrum as Reference if TTL signal is high pin 8 For reflectance measurements it is recommended to update the reference data regularly to exclude effects like drift in the light source or e g temperature effects of the detector or in the optical bench In most cases reference is saved manually by clicking the white reference button This reference data will be saved automatically if this external trigger option is selected and the status of pin 8 is HIGH 45V at the moment that a new spectrum is available For the required TTL signal duration and timing see the above description for saving spectra at high TTL signal External Hardware Trigger perform a single scan at rising edge of TTL pulse pin 4 By selecting the external hardware trigger option the data acquisition mode of the spectrometer is changed There will be no data acquisition until a TTL pulse is received at pin 4 of the DB15 connector Within 2 ms after detecting the rising edge of the TTL pulse and with a
69. ni x opli 2 thi AvaSpec 2048 spectrometer in AVA ThinFilm is E p liis d sufficient to measure the interference for layers up to nl E 50000 nm So in most applications there is no need to Slave E Slavel switch on the spline interpolation Smoothing is a procedure which averages the spectral X Cancel data over a number of pixels on the detector array For example if the smoothing parameter is set to 2 the spectral data for all pixels x on the detector array will be averaged with their neighbor pixels x55 Xp 1 Xn 1 and X 2 By default this parameter is set to 6 for the AVA Thinfilm system 3 3 4 Setup Menu Correct for Dynamic Dark AvaSpec 2048 only The pixels of the CCD detector AvaSpec 2048 are thermally sensitive which causes a small dark current even without light exposure To get an approximation of this dark current the signal of the first 14 optical black pixels of the CCD detector can be taken and subtracted from the raw scope data This will happen if the correct for dynamic dark option is enabled As these 14 pixels have the same thermal behaviour as the active pixels the correction is dynamic Note that this option is different from the dark current that needs to be saved before a reflectance measurement can be taken File Save Dark If the correct for dynamic dark option has been changed it will be necessary to save a new dark and reference spectrum because the raw data has been changed If t
70. packages AS 161 DLL AS 5216 DLL to detect saturation and to notify the user if a measurement contains saturated pixels This notification is done in such a way that the user can always decide to ignore the saturation for example if the saturation happens at pixels that are not in the wavelength range where the user is interested in Saturation can usually be solved by selecting a shorter integration time When at minimum integration the signal is still too high an attenuator a neutral density filter or fibers with a smaller diameter may be used In AvaSoft different levels of saturation detection can be set and there are also different options for notification as shown in the figure at the right v Saturation Detection E m x Set Saturation Detection Saturation detection levels The default level of saturation detection is Detect Saturated Pixels at saturation level Only for AvaSpec 2048 spectrometers the third C Detect all Saturated Pixels and autocorrect inverted pixel values autocorrect inverted pixels level is available The reason for this is that if the detector type in IF ane or more pisels of a spectrometer channel are saturated the text label the AvaSpec 2048 Sony ILX554 is heavily saturated appears in the amp vaSoft main window statusbar for that channel saturated at a light intensity of approximately 5 Additionally more detailed information can be retrieved in the following ways times the intensity at
71. periment 2 hot a New het E experiment 3 hcf E New het Bestandsnaam experiment 3 Bestandsnaam experiment 1 hcf Opslaan als type Function Definition Files Annuleren Bestandstypen Function Definition Files amp nnuleren After the definition of one or more functions the OK button is clicked to confirm the CANCEL button to leave the dialog without changes If the OK button is clicked AvaSoft performs a number of checks on the data that has been entered If no warnings show up the parameters that have been entered are accepted and the measurement can be started by the History Start Measuring menu option 4 1 2 History Application Start Measuring This option displays the output against time for the history functions that have been defined in the History Channel Function Entry dialog box If the option Display no graphics to speed up data processing has been marked in the function entry dialog the function output will be shown by numbers only which are updated each time a new scan is saved to the output file There are six buttons at the top of this window an Exit button a Pause Start button a Save Reference button a Save Dark button an Info button and a Print button If the red Exit button is clicked the time measurements are ended and the main window and menu 1s activated again The yellow Pause button can be used to stop the time measurements temporarily After clicking the Pause button
72. pins to your process equipment 4 3 2 Using the Process Control Application in AvaSoft The Process Control application needs to be activated by selecting Application Process Control Enable A checkmark will appear before the menu entry to show that the option is enabled Ma AvaSoft 6 0 Thin Film 2003 Avantes Fille Edit Setup View Application Help Start History Sw MER I wavelength Calibration d k Integration time ms fiso Process Control b Rs Ecel Output k Enable Digital Gukpuk Settings November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 49 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes To set minimum and maximum threshold values for each of the History functions select Application Process Control Digital Output Settings Pg Digital Output Settings E n x The box shows 16 values corresponding with a minimum and maximum threshold value for the 8 history channels All 16 values can be edited by clicking them with the mouse In addition in the third column you can select whether or not to invert the signal that is output For each channel the minimum threshold value may not exceed the maximum threshold value You cannot leave fields blank in that case enter 0 After selecting OK the settings are written to a binary file called digital int History Threshold Values Chan Min Max Invert The minimum and ma
73. s By clicking the Print button a graph that is displayed on the monitor will be printed The same result can be achieved with the option File Print Print button E IM OS Channel button After clicking the Channel button a dialog is shown in which the spectrometer channels can be selected for which data will be acquired and displayed The same result can be achieved with the option View Channel S Scope button By clicking the S button the data will be presented in Scope Mode The same result can be achieved with the option View Scope Mode R Reflectance button By clicking the R button the data will be presented in Reflectance Mode The same result can be achieved with the option View Reflectance Mode When first starting the program thickness calculation will only start after the first switch to Reflectance Mode i Autoscale Y axis button By clicking this button the graph will be rescaled on line A maximum signal will be shown at about 75 of the vertical scale The same result can be achieved with the option View Autoscale Y axis E Change Graph Scale button By clicking this button a dialog will be shown in which the range can be changed for both X and Y axis This range can be saved as well and restored any time by clicking the Goto Preset Scale button see below The menu option with the same functionality is View Change Graph Scale Goto Preset Scale button By clicking this button the scale for X and
74. s Avasoft uses only the differences measured in time at the FOS reference channel to correct the data measured at the sample channel In the second correction method the correction factor between the both FOS channels is determined first and then the white reference measured at the FOS reference channel is recalculated and saved as a new reference for the FOS sample channel since for both methods a dark spectrum needs to be available save dark before enabling the Correct for Drift by FOS 2 INLINE UV VIS menu option After clicking the menu option the following dialog will be shown FOS Settings reference channel E Integration time me for FOS reference channel n Mr af scans to Average for FOS reference channel Save Dark for FOS reference channel Save Reference for FOS reference channel S FOS correction made e Software user controls FOS switch frequency C1 d f Auto FOS switch frequency is preset f Continuously measure sample update FOS reference on switch Continuous update FOS reference measure sample on switch Update FOS reference every Eo seconds FOS Reference Sample Reference x Cancel 400 300 600 700 800 900 Wavelength nm If the interface cable between AvaSpec and FOS 2 and the Power Supply are properly connected the FOS 2 will close top sample channel and open the bottom reference channel As long as the FOS settings dialog is not
75. s connected to the computer If you accidentally connected the AvaSpec spectrometer to the USB port of your PC before installing AvaSoft the USB drivers cannot be found and the spectrometer cannot be found by the later installed software To rectify an incorrect installation follow these steps 1 Navigate to the Device Manager For Windows2000 XP File Action View Help e mi amp mE m Bal Awvanbes Spectrometers El Computer FE Disk drives oa Display adapters systems right click on My Computer select Properties I DYDICD ROM drives or open the system icon from the Control Panel Then net Floppy disk controllers select Hardware tab and click on Device Manager fl Floppy disk drives button Fig Human Interface Devices 2 Scroll down until you see Other devices Fy IDE ATA ATAPI controllers 3 Under Other devices you will see USB device with a H Keyboards large question mark right click the USB device and select Gl Mice and other pointing devices the uninstall option H Modems 4 A warning box will appear to ask if it is OK to remove BI Monitors the device click OK HES Nebwork adapters El p Other devices M USB Device EL S Ports COM amp LPT me Processors se Sound video and game controllers fl System devices re Universal Serial Bus controllers 5 Unplug the AvaSpec spectrometer from your PC and reinstall the AvaSoft software 6 Now you can plug the AvaSpec spectrometer to the USB port again Win
76. t Excel It uses OLE Automation which is a technology that enables AvaSoft to remotely control Excel opening sheets and copying data into cells 4 4 Select Source Data Besides enabling Excel output you will have to select your source data This is done in the same way it would be done without the Excel output option with the Function Entry dialog to define History Channel Functions The only difference is the Save Function Output box which is not used by the Excel Output option This part is replaced by a separate dialog which will be described under Settings 4 4 0 Enable Excel Output Wristory Channel Function Entry Bl x Fi r2 r3 r4 rs re r7 re Function Type None Film Thickness C Fit Quality r Measure Mode Scope C Absorbance Reflectance C radiance r Function Definition EPA CA rW avelength limits Thickness limits Layers i si 100 nk Master v From 249 nm Lower 5 nm a L 100 n Coat Si02 them Advanced Options To 1050 nm Upper 500 mm Subst Si 100 0k EI r Function Display Settings r X asis time Y axis Function Value Auto C Fixed Auto C Fixed Display No Graphics To Speed Up Data Processing Save Function Output Do not save Function Output C Save Function Output X Cancel Save HCF Load HCF Enable the option by sele
77. tes com email Info avantes com oyantes Ed Microsoft Excel Bladi E 8l xl Bestand Bewerken Beeld Invoegen Opmaak Extra Data Yenster Help 181 x D a E 3 amp 8 XB m M gt courier new 10 BZU ES on 4 S9 E DA C1 ww F1 Film Thickness nm Master Channel Time Elapsed msec F1 14 03 2003 16 33 24 59603712 355 7646 14 03 2003 16 33 24 59604203 355 7928 14 03 2003 16 33 25 59604533 355 8578 14 03 2003 16 33 25 59605084 355 9199 14 03 2003 16 33 26 59605525 355 5595 14 03 2003 16 33 26 59605985 355 7871 14 03 2003 16 33 26 59606426 355 7754 14 03 2003 16 33 27 59606877 355 8261 14 03 2003 15 33 27 59607327 355 7592 14 03 2003 16 33 28 59607776 355 8485 14 03 2003 15 33 28 59608228 355 7884 14 03 2003 16 33 29 59608679 355 7029 14 03 2003 16 33 29 59609130 355 8148 14 03 2003 16 33 30 59609580 355 8235 14 03 2003 15 33 30 59610031 355 8195 14 03 2003 15 33 30 59610462 355 8517 14 03 2003 15 33 31 59610932 355 626 14 03 2003 16 33 31 59611383 355 9618 14 03 2003 16 33 32 59611633 355 9359 14 03 2003 16 33 32 59612264 355 757 14 03 2003 15 33 33 59612735 355 7282 14 03 2003 15 33 33 59613165 355 8446 14 03 2003 16 33 34 59613636 355 9157 14 03 2003 15 33 34 59614087 355 8348 14 03 2003 15 33 35 58614527 355821 14 03 2003 16 33 35 59614986 355 7944 14 03 2003 15 33 35 59615426 355 7933 14 03 2003 15 33 36 58615878 355 8551 14 03 2003 16 33 36 59616330 355 7766 14 03 2003
78. the light source and save dark After clicking OK AvaSoft enables the spectrometer channels that are relevant in the correct for drift application After saving the reference and dark files a message dialog shows that the data will be corrected for drift The menu option will be preceded by a checkmark To disable the correct for drift option the menu option if preceded by a checkmark needs to be clicked 3 3 8 4 Setup Menu Options Automatic Save Dark by TTL shutter To use the automatic save dark option an interface cable needs to be connected from the spectrometer to the light source AvaLight DHc The interface cable between TTL shutter and spectrometer is a 15 to 15 pin cable IC AVS IO15 1 8 To use the automatic save dark option the light source needs to be in TTL mode In AvaSoft the menu option save automatic dark by TTL shutter needs to be checked in the menu setup options If this option is checked the TTL will switch off the light source at the moment the dark data is saved After the dark has been saved the light will be switched on automatically 3 3 8 5 Setup Menu Options External Trigger Setting The DB15 connector on the Wg External Trigger Setting E O x AvaSpec spectrometer uses two EN Select Settin pins for digital IN None communication pin 4 and 8 Pin 4 is used for the Hardware Trigger mode and pin 8 is a regular digital in which status can be polled In AvaSoft two functions have b
79. the sequence number will be automatically incremented so the next file that will be saved in scope mode will be called TOP0002 TFA etc For detailed information on graphic filenames see File EEN Save Experiment Note that the dialog Opslaan als type Experiment Files T Annuleren allows you to select different folders or drives to save the experiments to as well as creating a new folder name for the new experiment After closing the dialog box by clicking the save button the new experiment name followed by its sequence number is displayed in the lower left of the status bar By clicking the cancel button the old experiment name will be restored Bestandsnaam 18 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com 3 1 2 File Menu Load Dark With this option dark data can be loaded that have been saved before If AvaSoft ThinFilm is in static mode the dark data that will be loaded are shown on the screen first 3 1 3 File Menu Load Reference With this option reference data can be loaded that have been saved before If AvaSoft ThinFilm is in static mode the reference data that will be loaded are shown on the screen first 3 1 4 File Menu Load Experiment With this option an experiment can be ear WE 0a Apernmern amc loaded that has been used before This way r more spectra can be saved to an existing Opslaan als C3 pictures amp c
80. the spectrometer can be calculated b P y Third Coefficient 0 00000E 00 Chart at 158 8 TE the following equation NC Fourth Coefficient 0 00000E 00 stop at r00 nm Intercept X1 pixnr X2 pixnr X3 pixnr X4 pixnr Intercept 158 533 in which Intercept and X1 to X4 X Cancel EERE GE correspond to Intercept and First to Fourth Coefficient in the figure at the right November 2008 AVASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 25 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes For example if we want to calculate the wavelength at pixel number 1000 using the numbers in the figure at the right the wavelength becomes N 168 933 0 603334 1000 2 04957E 5 1E6 0 0 1 E9 751 771 nm The Restore Factory Settings button restores for all spectrometer channels the original wavelength calibration coefficients that were saved to the EEPROM during factory calibration The Process data only when in following wavelength range is a feature that can be used to speed up the program by transmitting only the data between the given wavelength range from the spectrometer to the PC The default setting is the full wavelength range of the spectrometer 3 3 3 Setup Menu Smoothing and Spline The Cubic Spline Interpolation Algorithm can be applied v ER and Spline to get a better estimation for the spectral data between the pixels on the detector array The resolution of the i
81. tton to the right of each name After clicking this button you will enter a File Open dialog where you can select a different nk file for the layer concerned resists Shipley _ Fluorides C selenides glasses semiconductors L metals silicides J nitrides 1 sulfides others C tellurides l oxides k resists _MRT W a hv Computer Lc My Network P Files of type nk files nk Cancel E November 2008 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc 4 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com oyantes Function Definition Spectrometer Channel Master Function Definition Fit Quality In case a function is defined to define Fit Quality against time only the spectrometer channel can be selected You can only select the Fit Quality function definition if there is another function definition active for this spectrometer channel with a Film Thickness function definition Function Display Setting Function Display Settings ams time C Auto Yr asis Function Value C Auto f Fixed C Seconds ae nn Display Last i Cu Te YMin Hours YMax 105 0 For Film Thickness and Fit Quality functions the output can be displayed graphically against time The amount of time that will be displayed at the X axis can be set manually by clicking the Fixed radiobutton If set to Auto the time axis will be set to 1 minute The Y Axis can also be set to Fix
82. using the current sample reference and dark data sets in the following equation R soos mp aa ref dark 3 4 3 View Menu Channel Active Channels After selecting this option a dialog is shown in which the channels to be displayed can be selected Depending on the number of available channels in the spectrometer system that is used up to 8 spectrometer channels can be selected If displaying graphs that were saved before File Display Saved Graph the active channels also remain visible to be able to measure online against a saved graph background To view only the saved graphs all active channels need to be unselected 3 4 4 View Menu Graphic Reset When selecting this option the graph will be reset to the default X and Y axes 3 4 5 View Menu Autoscale Y axis By using this option the graph will be rescaled on line A maximum signal will be shown at about 75 of the vertical scale 38 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com 3 4 6 View Menu Change Graph Scale Change Graph Scale Ea After selecting this option a dialog is shown in which the range for both X and Y axis can be changed To switch to the Min Max full scale the View Graphic Reset option or the mouse zoom X Axis 600 0 630 0 out feature can be used By clicking the Save button in this dialog the settings for X axis and Y Axis will be saved to a Y Axis 49
83. verwritten 8 by AvaSoft 9 M 4 MN Graphi AvaSoft Data Test sheet IKI Gereed INUM s AvaSoft will check if a sheet named AvaSoft Data is present and will add this sheet if it is not present This way links to the sheet can be preserved between sessions The sheet contains the following data at fixed positions A3 Date Time stamp This 1s a floating point value in which the integer part 1s the day number starting at January 1 1900 with day 1 The fractional part represents a decimal time value where 0 5 is 12 00 h noon and 0 75 is 18 00 h This way differences in date time can be readily calculated by subtracting values which would be much more difficult if this was a text representation B3 Time in milliseconds after midnight This value does not have a one millisecond resolution Remember that Windows is not a real time operating system It can however be used as a reasonably accurate indicator of the time that passes between scans D3 Value for first History Channel e g Film Thickness ES E Empty not used in ThinFilm Application F3 Value for second History Channel e g Film thickness Slave spectrometer or Fit Quality 4 4 4 Start Output You start the output the usual way with Application History Start measuring You can also use the corresponding button on the Button Bar Please do not perform large alterations
84. ximum threshold values are indicated in the history graphs with horizontal lines If Invert is not selected the corresponding output pin will be set high if the history channel output value lies between the minimum and maximum value It will be set low if the history channel output value exceeds the maximum value OR is smaller than the minimum value If Invert is selected the corresponding output pin will be set high if the history channel output value exceeds the maximum value OR is smaller than the minimum value It will be set low if the history channel output value lies between the minimum and maximum value An example of running the History Channel functions together with the Process Control application is shown below Ext Ww mese In this example the measured Film Thickness 1s around 355 8 nm and the TTL out will be activated 1f the measured thickness will drop below 354nm or exceeds 356 nm These values are represented by the horizontal lines in the graphs To convert the History Channel Functions output to an analog output signal a DA card is available AvaSoft supports the PC AO 2DC card for this purpose 2 analog outputs 8 digital 50 AV ASOFT 7 3 ThinFilm for USB1 Manual doc November 2008 Avantes website http www avantes com email Info avantes com ay ntes AvaSoft XLS is an add on application that enables Avasoft Full to output history channel data to Microsoft 4 4 Applications Excel Outpu

AVASOFT-ThinFilm for AvaSpec-2048 version 7.3 USER`S MANUAL

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