Ehrenfried Zschech, Jürgen Gluch, Kristina Kutukova

Fraunhofer IKTS Dresden, Germany

High-resolution nondestructive studies of kinetic processes in materials is a highly ranked request from advanced materials development, and it is an industrial demand for reliability engineering in several branches including microelectronics, energy storage and lightweight construction. There is a particular need for 3D structural and chemical characterization of materials and devices with a spatial resolution of 100 nm and below. Due to the particular properties of X-rays, i. e. high penetration of matter and good material contrast in absorption, nano X-ray tomography is a versatile tool for nondestructive 3D bulk analysis of materials and for the investigation of complex 3D structures. Examples for high-resolution in-situ X-ray imaging studies will be shown, including studies of kinetic processes in materials: Physical failure analysis in 3D-stacked microchips, kinetic reactions for energy storage and conversion processes, crack initiation and propagation in microchips and composites.

Novel focusing lenses, so-called multilayer Laue lenses, have the potential to bring hard X-ray microscopy (high photon energy) at high efficiencies to resolutions down to the 10 nm range and below, since the resolution is not limited by the patterning process as applied for the fabrication of state-of-the-art Fresnel zone plates. Full-field imaging, demonstrated first time in a laboratory X-ray microscope using multilayer Laue lenses, will be reported. Combined with a larger focal length, nano X-ray tomography of larger samples is possible, and space is available to insert in-situ experimental setups (micromechanical testing, reaction chambers, high temperature/cryo stages) in the beam path.