A hard x-ray transmission microscope with 30 nm spatial resolution has been developed employing the third diffraction order of a zone plate objective. The microscope utilizes a capillary type condenser with suitable surface figure to generate a hollow cone illumination which is matched in illumination range to the numerical aperture of the third order diffraction of a zone plate with an outmost zone width of 50 nm. Using a test sample of a 150 nm thick gold spoke pattern with finest half-pitch of 30 nm, the authors obtained x-ray images with 30 nm resolution at 8 keV x-ray energy.

An energy-tunable transmission hard x-ray microscope with close to 60 nm spatial resolution in three dimensions ͑3D͒ has been developed. With a cone beam illumination, a zone plate of 50 nm outmost zone width, a stable mechanical design, and software feedback, we obtained tomographic data sets that are close to 60 nm spatial resolution. Meanwhile, the element specific imaging was also obtained by a differential absorption contrast technique used below and above the absorption of the element. Examples of advanced intergraded circuit devices are used to demonstrate the element selectivity and spatial resolution in 3D of the microscope.

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Xradia has developed a laboratory table-top transmission x-ray microscope, TXM 54-80, that uses 5.4 keV x-ray radiation to nondestructively image buried submicron structures in integrated circuits with at better than 80 nm 2D resolution. With an integrated tomographic imaging system, a series of x-ray projections through a full IC stack, which may include tens of micrometers of silicon substrate and several layers of Cu interconnects, can be collected and reconstructed to produce a 3D image of the IC structure at 100 nm resolution, thereby allowing the user to detect, localize, and characterize buried defects without having to conduct layer by layer deprocessing and inspection that are typical of conventional destructive failure analysis. In addition to being a powerful tool for both failure analysis and IC process development, the TXM may also facilitate or supplant investigations using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and focused ion beam (FIB) tools, which generally require destructive sample preparation and a vacuum environment.

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