3D-measurement using a scanning electron microscope

In this paper the improved photometric or the so called "Shape From Shading" method is presented. In comparison to known and established approaches the efficiency of the detector system was considered and the requirements of the cosine Lambert's law for the angle distribution of the emitted electrons are suppressed. The method retrieves more accurate data of sub-micrometer substructures like diffractive optical elements (DOE) due to an increased lateral resolution and works more efficiently than widely used comparable techniques. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.