Advances in traceable nanometrology at the National Physical Laboratory

The only difference between nanotechnology and many other fields of science or engineering is that of size. Control in manufacturing at the nanometre scale still requires accurate and traceable measurements whether one is att empting to machine optical quality glass or write one's company name in sin gle atoms. A number of instruments have been developed at the National Phys ical Laboratory that address the measurement requirements of the nanotechno logy community and provide traceability to the definition of the metre. The instruments discussed in this paper are an atomic force microscope and a s urface texture measuring instrument with traceable metrology in all their o perational axes, a combined optical and x-ray interferometer system that ca n be used to calibrate displacement transducers to subnanometre accuracy an d a co-ordinate measuring machine with a working volume of (50 mm)(3) and 5 0 nm volumetric accuracy.