NUMERICAL APERTURE INCREASING LENS (NAIL) TECHNIQUES FOR HIGH-RESOLUTION SUB-SURFACE IMAGING

摘要

A viewing enhancement lens (18 - NAIL) which functions to increase the numerical aperture or light gathering or focusing power of viewing optics such as a microscope (26) used to view structure within a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or chip or of imaging optics such as media recorders. The result is to increase the resolution of the system by a factor of between n, and n<2>, where n is the index of refraction of the lens substrate.