The consistent further development of nanopositioning and nanometrology at the Technical University of Ilmenau enables high-precision measurements and positioning of objects with 20 pm resolution over 10 decades up to 200 mm measuring range. The new nanopositioning and nanometrology machines (NPMM-200) operate on the basis of the further improved error-minimized, extended Abbe comparator principle in six degrees of freedom, with high- precision fiber-coupled laser interferometers and enable the use of a wide variety of optical and tactile precision sensors and atomic force probes.

The high positioning and measuring capability in the range of up to 20 picometers is demonstrated with various methods. Control deviations in the nanometer range can be achieved with scanning speed up to 30 mm/s.

A new approach of an atomic clock stabilized He-Ne laser via a highly stable frequency comb is used to further increase the measurement accuracy. We thus achieve a reclative frequency stability of less than 1.2.10-12, which is an improvement by a factor of 1000 compared to standard solutions.

These machines are suitable not only to measure with an outstanding nanometre performance but also to manipulate and to fabricate on the nanoscale. NPMM technology is increasingly proving to be a key technology and enabler for many areas of nanotechnologies, from MEMS fabrication and analysis, up to advanced tip and laser based nanofabrication as a new alternative lithography approach.

Here, our aim is to combine latest micro- and nanofabrication technologies with the enormous possibilities of the NPMM. For example, a fs-laser was integrated into the machine and first micro- structures based on two photon polymerization were realized. Furthermore, a new AFM tip-based nanofabrication process for high-localized sub-5nm structuring is developed and investigated. The publication presents measurement and processing results and discusses the enormous possibilities of this new technology.