Building a near-field scanning millimeter-wave microscope integrated in a scanning electron microscope

A near-field scanning millimeter-wave frequency microscope built inside a scanning electron microscope is described. The proposed instrumentation can provide simultaneous atomic force and millimeter-wave images together with the scanning electron microscopy image of the probe / sample interaction. In contrast with conventional scanning microwave microscopy tools, the instrumentation proposed opens the way to achieve traceable measurements by tackling issues encountered in traditional near-field scanning microwave microscopy tools. First, water meniscus in the vicinity of the probe tip is eliminated to reduce parasitic capacitance. Secondly, targeted frequency up to 110 GHz results in confined electric fields in the vicinity of the probe tip to enhance the lateral resolution. Finally, visualization of the tip / sample interaction offers unique possibility to support the measured millimeter-wave signals by fine FEM modeling