
Nearfield Instruments, daringly innovative metrology solutions
An interview with Hamed Sadeghian, CEO Nearfield Instruments
Continuous drive for yield and performance improvement in nanotechnology have led to an ever-increasing need for more advanced metrology and inspection solutions. Nearfield Instruments developed ground-breaking metrology solutions for the global advanced semiconductor industry. Neways recently partnered with Nearfield Instruments to supply key electronics for its products. In an interview with Hamed Sadeghian, co-founder and CEO of Nearfield Instruments, we discuss their technology, key trends in the semiconductor industry and Nearfield’s evolving approach to its suppliers.
“Companies like Neways
drive and support the speed of innovation our sector so clearly experiences today.”

What are the origins of your technology and how did it evolve into Nearfield Instruments?
The idea for our technology was born out of the gap I recognized while working at TNO in the market of semiconductor metrology and inspection around 2011. Process control of chip manufacturing was already challenging back then, and with the introduction of new and more complex nodes we expected this challenge to become even bigger. Working closely together with our customers, semiconductor fabrication plants, we confirmed our views on this challenge and also identified how we could potentially overcome this. This was the starting point of the development of what today is our automated high-throughput 3D scanning probe metrology.
Since then we worked on a proof of concept, involving our customers on a regular basis such that our development would add value in their processes and actually be used in their fabs. This led to the foundation of Nearfield Instruments in 2016. We continued to work on developing our product for operation in highly sophisticated semicon fab environments, opened our high-tech cleanrooms and delivered our first commercial product in February 2021. We are now ramping up to build larger series products so we can meet the big demand we have in front of us.

What does your technology add for the semiconductor industry?
The holy grail in semiconductor industry is to achieve the combination of high throughput in combination with extremely high accuracy, in a context of shrinking dimension and more complex 3D structures of chips. Transition electron microscopy, often used today, provides the required accuracy but is slow, not in-line, and is destructive, meaning the wafers do not come back to the process line. Other non-destructive technologies on the other hand, such as Ebeam and CD-SEM, enable higher throughput but do not provide all the required 3D information – and I am talking about information that today is yield-limiting in 3D architectures.
The uniqueness of Nearfield Instruments is that we are filling this gap. Our technology enables the ultimate level of accuracy and resolution, full 3D and non-destructive, at a throughput level that can be used in-line in a high-volume manufacturing environment.