Park NX-PTR

Inline Automation, for Fast, Accurate,
and Repeatable PTR Measurements

Scan range

XY Scan Range: 100X100 µm,
Z Scan Range: 15 µm

Sample size

HDD Slider or Rowbar-level

English
Japanese
Overview
Applications
Option

Powerful features for
high throughput inline
PTR measurements

Park Systems' PTR Series is a fully automatic
industrial in-line AFM solution for, but not limited to,
automatic Pole Tip Recession measurements on
Rowbar-level, individual Slider-level, and HGA-level
sliders. With sub-nano scale accuracy, repeatability,
and throughput, the PTR Series is the metrology tool
of choice for Slider manufacturers to improve their
overall production yield.

Fully Automated AFM for In line
Hard Disk Slider Metrology

  • Automated PTR imaging in non-contact mode
  • Automated analysis of PTR images for carrier, rowbar, or individual slider
  • Automatic tip exchange (optional)
  • Industry's lowest system noise of less than 0.5 Arms

Accurate and Repeatable
Measurements for Improved
Production Yield

  • Accurate imaging of HDD sliders without any need of larger sized reference scans
  • Accurate height and angle measurements for industry leading PTR gauge repeatability
  • Flat and orthogonal XY scan removes artifacts from background curvature
  • Superior tool-to-tool matching

Accurate Height Measurements
with Low Noise Z Detector

  • True Sample TopographyTM without edge overshoot or piezo creep error
  • Accurate surface height recording, even during high-speed scanning
  • Industry leading forward and backward scan gap of less than 0.15%

Best Tip Life and Scan Resolution by
True Non-Contact™ Mode

  • 1 0 times or longer tip life during PTR measurements than any other AFMs
  • Minimal tip wear from prolonged high-quality scans
  • Minimized sample damage or modification

Automated Inline
Measurements of Hard
Disk Sliders

The key to improving the production yield of hard
disk sliders with shrinking dimensions and increasing
complexity is accuracy at the nanoscale. Park NX-PTR
provides accurate, automatic measurements for hard disk sliders.

Automatic PTR Measurement and Analysis

Pole Tip Recession measurements are fully
automated with the NX-PTR system, giving you
higher throughput capability, both at the carrier,
rowbar, and slider level.

more more arrow right

Automatic Wall Angle Measurement
& Analysis

Automatically get measurement and analysis of the various wall angle applications.

Automatic Defect Measurement and Analysis

Measurement and analysis of various defects such as edge spikes are fully automated.

Park NX-PTR features

The NX-PTR provides you with unprecedented
accuracy in topography height measurement by
utilizing its ultra-low noise Z detector instead of the
commonly used Z voltage signal that is non-linear
in nature. Industry leading low noise Z detector
replace the applied Z voltage as the topography
signal and make the forward and backward scan gap a negligible 0.15% of the scan range.

The body of the NX-PTR is designed to be
extremely mechanically and thermally stable,
minimizing thermal drift and giving you more
precise measurements. A typical thermal drift rate
is less than 100 nm/°C for the lateral direction and
200 nm/°C for the vertical direction.

The NX-PTR is equipped with automated software that makes operation nearly effortless. Just select the desired measurement program to get precise multi-site analysis with optimized setting for cantilever tuning, scan rate, gain, and set point parameters. Park's user-friendly software interface gives you the flexibility to create customized operation routines so you can access the full power of the NX-PTR and get the measurements you need. Creating new routines is easy. It takes about 10 minutes to create a new routine from scratch, or less than 5 minutes to modify an existing one.

  • Auto, semi-auto, and manual mode so you have complete control
  • Editable measurement method for each automated routine
  • Live monitoring of the measurement process
  • Automatic analysis of acquired measurement data

Productivity meets
Accuracy

Automatic Tip Exchange (ATX)

Park’s automatic tip exchange system lets you
seamlessly continue automated measurement
routines. It automatically calibrates cantilever
location and optimizes measurement settings
based on measurements of a reference pattern.
Our novel magnetic approach to the tip exchange
has a 99% success rate, so you can do better work with less oversight.

Automatic Laser Beam Alignment

Park’s automatic laser beam alignment let’s the
user seamlessly continue automated
measurement routines without user input. With
our advanced pre-aligned cantilever holder, the
laser beam is focused on the cantilever upon
automatic tip exchange. The laser spot is then
optimized along the X- and Y-axis by motorized positioning knobs.

Customize your AFM to
make it more efficient
and more effective

Customized Sample Fixture

Park Systems can prepare customized sample
fixtures to support customers’ specific samples,
row bars or individual sliders. The customized
sample fixture can provide a better connection
between the measuring sample and the NX-PTR for increased accuracy.

Customized HGA Fixture

HGA fixtures can be custom built to firmly fit a
specific HGA design provided by the customer,
offering a more stable fixture.
The non-damaging fixture allows users to easily
load and unload the entire HGA, without causing
any damage to the HGA. HGA then can be
dismounted, and further tested. Up to 5 HGA
samples of the same type can be mounted at the same time.

Ionization System for a more stable scanning environment

Our innovative ionization system quickly and
effectively removes electrostatic charges in your
sample's environment. Since the system
always generates and maintains the ideal balance
of positive and negative ions, it can create an
extremely stable charge environment with little
contamination of the surrounding area and
minimal risk of accidental electrostatic charge during sample handling.

×