June 6, 2008&#8212Digital Surf (Besançon, France), developer of topographical analysis tools for micro and nano-surfaces, has released Mountains Technology version 5. The new software enables metrological analysis of the evolution of a 3D surface, for instance nanotechnology or a MEMS device, in a fourth dimension.

The 4D software module is compatible with any 3D instrument, says Digital Surf Changes in height on the z axis are now not only a function of the x, y position but also of a 4th dimension t, which is most often time, but can equally well be temperature, pressure, magnetic field or any other physical constraint applied to an object or surface for the purpose of studying its reaction.

4D analysis can be used to study surface change over time for issues such as corrosion, UV depolymerisation of epoxy in a composite material, or loss of surface protection; it can be used to measure warping in response to an external force; or for the dynamic study of a functioning microsystem or MEMS structure.

Using the software, simulated flights over 3D surfaces changing in time can be output to a video file for animated presentations. Analysis features include tools for manipulating and quantifying 4D series of surfaces z=f(x ,y, t). In particular, it is possible to follow the evolution of a point or a zone over time, to correlate the evolution of a surface texture parameter with the evolution of another physical unit, and to study the statistical dispersion of a roughness parameter. A tool that has been around for a long time, but is new in the analysis of surface topography, is the KLT (Karhunen-Loève Transform). The KLT makes it possible to automatically identify zones on a surface that behave differently, with a view to locating them and studying them separately.

Last year, Digital Surf announced that surface analysis software, based on a version of Mountains, is now integrated into NanoFocus’s micronsurf 3D topometers and micronscan profilometers.