Multimodal X-ray and Hyperspectral Thin-Film Nano-material Evaluation and Quality Imaging

ended

Functional performances of nano-materials and thin films with nano-scale thickness are determined not only by material selection but also by their nano-physical dimensions, nano-scale structure and their nano-scale chemical composition. Precise characterisation of these properties is critical to develop new functional nano-materials and optimise processes toward higher performance, improved reproducibility and yield and up-scaling to larger quantities. X-ray characterisation techniques such as X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) or X-ray reflectometry (XRR) are widely used in research laboratories for this task but are rarely used in industrial material development and assessment of production processes due to technical limitations and required high level expertise. The project NanoQI targets the development of an industry-suited, real-time and in-line capable technique to characterise nano-structure and nano-dimensions of (thin-film) nano-materials by optimisation of area-detector based XRR and XRD concepts and their multi-modal combination with a novel wide-angle hyper-spectral imaging (HSI) technique. Therewith, NanoQI will provide industry access to real time evaluation of nano-material geometry, structure and morphology and correlative imaging of deviations of these properties. NanoQI technology will be demonstrated in three relevant industrial application scenarios: in-situ process assessment in manufacturing of perovskite solar cells; large-area vacuum roll-to-roll coating of polymer webs and industrial atomic layer deposition of dielectric and gas barrier layers.