Modeling and Optimizing XeF2-enhanced FIB Milling of Silicon

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil J. Bassom ◽  
Tung Mai
Keyword(s):  
Enhancement Factor ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Flip Chip ◽  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Beam Current ◽  
Back Side ◽  
Dose Enhancement ◽  
Average Current Density ◽  
Milling Parameters

Abstract Wide variations in the dose enhancement factor observed when milling silicon using Focused Ion Beam (FIB) XeF2 Gas Assisted Etching (GAE) prompted the development of a simple model of the GAE process. The model accounts for three material removal mechanisms: regular sputtering; gas-assisted sputtering; and spontaneous chemical reactions. An expression linking the dose enhancement factor, εd, to the gas and milling parameters has been derived. Experiments show that εd behaves as predicted; good quantitative agreement is achieved over wide ranges of milling parameters for εd values between 20X and 2500X. Conditions required to minimize variations in d and maximize material removal rates, M, are derived. It is shown that if the dose per unit area per raster is below a threshold value then εd and M depend only on the average current density J (the area of the box divided by the beam current). A consideration of the J regimes used for front-side and back-side FIB work shows why changes in εd have not previously been a problem but are inevitable when milling the large trenches characteristics of Flip Chip circuit modification work. While εd changes dramatically there is a region of J values for which M is approximately constant.

FIB Micro-Surgery on Flip-Chips from the Backside

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raymond Lee ◽  
Nicholas Antoniou
Keyword(s):  
Flip Chip ◽  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Back Side ◽  
Bulk Silicon ◽  
Front Side ◽  
Large Hole ◽  
Area Of Interest ◽  
Flip Chip Packaging ◽  
Micro Surgery

Abstract The increasing use of flip-chip packaging is challenging the ability of conventional Focused Ion Beam (FIB) systems to perform even the most basic device modification and debug work. The inability to access the front side of the circuit has severely reduced the usefulness of tradhional micro-surgery. Advancements in FIB technology and its application now allow access to the circuitry from the backside through the bulk silicon. In order to overcome the problem of imaging through thick silicon, a microscope with Infra Red (IR) capability has been integrated into the FIB system. Navigation can now be achieved using the IR microscope in conjunction with CAD. The integration of a laser interferometer stage enables blind navigation and milling with sub-micron accuracy. To optimize the process, some sample preparation is recommended. Thinning the sample to a thickness of about 100 µm to 200 µm is ideal. Once the sample is thinned, it is then dated in the FIB and the area of interest is identified using the IR microscope. A large hole is milled using the FIB to remove most of the silicon covering the area of interest. At this point the application is very similar to more traditional FIB usage since there is a small amount of silicon to be removed in order to expose a node, cut it or reconnect it. The main differences from front-side applications are that the material being milled is conductive silicon (instead of dielectric) and its feature-less and therefore invisible to a scanned ion beam. In this paper we discuss in detail the method of back-side micro-surgery and its eflkcton device performance. Failure Analysis (FA) is another area that has been severely limited by flip-chip packaging. Localized thinning of the bulk silicon using FIB technology oflkrs access to diagnosing fdures in flip-chip assembled parts.

Manufacturing In-Line Whole Wafer Focused Ion Beam (FIB) Memory Address Descramble Verification

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven B. Herschbein ◽  
Hyoung H. Kang ◽  
Scott L. Jansen ◽  
Andrew S. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Flip Chip ◽  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Random Access ◽  
Cell Counting ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Laboratory Procedure ◽  
Memory Array ◽  
Dual Beam ◽  
Process Level

Abstract Test engineers and failure analyst familiar with random access memory arrays have probably encountered the frustration of dealing with address descrambling. The resulting nonsequential internal bit cell counting scheme often means that the location of the failing cell under investigation is nowhere near where it is expected to be. A logical to physical algorithm for decoding the standard library block might have been provided with the design, but is it still correct now that the array has been halved and inverted to fit the available space in a new processor chip? Off-line labs have traditionally been tasked with array layout verification. In the past, hard and soft failures could be induced on the frontside of finished product, then bitmapped to see if the sites were in agreement. As density tightened, flip-chip FIB techniques to induce a pattern of hard fails on packaged devices came into practice. While the backside FIB edit method is effective, it is complex and expensive. The installation of an in-line Dual Beam FIB created new opportunities to move FA tasks out of the lab and into the FAB. Using a new edit procedure, selected wafers have an extensive pattern of defects 'written' directly into the memory array at an early process level. Bitmapping of the RAM blocks upon wafer completion is then used to verify correlation between the physical damaged cells and the logical sites called out in the test results. This early feedback in-line methodology has worked so well that it has almost entirely displaced the complex laboratory procedure of backside FIB memory array descramble verification.

Fabrication of large area nanogap electrodes for sensing applications

2013 ◽  
Vol 1530 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bendavid ◽  
L. Wieczorek ◽  
R. Chai ◽  
J. S. Cooper ◽  
B. Raguse
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Beam Current ◽  
Fabrication Method ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Sensor Applications ◽  
Sensing Applications ◽  
Lift Off ◽  
Nanogap Electrodes

ABSTRACTA large area nanogap electrode fabrication method combinig conventional lithography patterning with the of focused ion beam (FIB) is presented. Lithography and a lift-off process were used to pattern 50 nm thick platinum pads having an area of 300 μm × 300 μm. A range of 30-300 nm wide nanogaps (length from 300 μm to 10 mm ) were then etched using an FIB of Ga+ at an acceleration voltage of 30 kV at various beam currents. An investigation of Ga+ beam current ranging between 1-50 pA was undertaken to optimise the process for the current fabrication method. In this study, we used Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the damage depth in various materials by the Ga+. Calculation of the recoil cascades of the substrate atoms are also presented. The nanogap electrodes fabricated in this study were found to have empty gap resistances exceeding several hundred MΩ. A comparison of the gap length versus electrical resistance on glass substrates is presented. The results thus outline some important issues in low-conductance measurements. The proposed nanogap fabrication method can be extended to various sensor applications, such as chemical sensing, that employ the nanogap platform. This method may be used as a prototype technique for large-scale fabrication due to its simple, fast and reliable features.

Characterization of FIB Damage in Silicon

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
pp. 740-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.A. Urbanik ◽  
B.I. Prenitzer ◽  
L.A. Gianhuzzi ◽  
S.R. Brown ◽  
T.L. Shofner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Target Material ◽  
Beam Current ◽  
Specimen Preparation ◽  
Transfer Energy ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Preparation Techniques ◽  
Reactive Gas

Focused ion beam (FIB) instruments are useful for high spatial resolution milling, deposition, and imaging capabilities. As a result, FIB specimen preparation techniques have been widely accepted within the semiconductor community as a means to rapidly prepare high quality, site-specific specimens for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) [1]. In spite of the excellent results that have been observed for both high resolution (HREM) and standard TEM specimen preparation applications, a degree of structural modification is inherent to FIB milled surfaces [2,3]. The magnitude of the damage region that results from Ga+ ion bombardment is dependent on the operating parameters of the FIB (e.g., beam current, beam voltage, milling time, and the use of reactive gas assisted etching).Lattice defects occur as a consequence of FIB milling because the incident ions transfer energy to the atoms of the target material. Momentum transferred from the incident ions to the target atoms can result in the creation of point defects (e.g., vacancies, self interstitials, and interstitial and substitutional ion implantation), the generation of phonons, and plasmon excitation in the case of metal targets.

scholarly journals Ion beam profiling from the interaction with a freestanding 2D layer

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 682-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Shorubalko ◽  
Kyoungjun Choi ◽  
Michael Stiefel ◽  
Hyung Gyu Park
Keyword(s):  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Beam Current ◽  
Exposure Dose ◽  
Ion Beams ◽  
Gaussian Profile ◽  
Helium Ion ◽  
Spread Function ◽  
Sputtering Yields ◽  
Pattern Resolution

Recent years have seen a great potential of the focused ion beam (FIB) technology for the nanometer-scale patterning of a freestanding two-dimensional (2D) layer. Experimentally determined sputtering yields of the perforation process can be quantitatively explained using the binary collision theory. The main peculiarity of the interaction between the ion beams and the suspended 2D material lies in the absence of collision cascades, featured by no interaction volume. Thus, the patterning resolution is directly set by the beam diameters. Here, we demonstrate pattern resolution beyond the beam size and precise profiling of the focused ion beams. We find out that FIB exposure time of individual pixels can influence the resultant pore diameter. In return, the pore dimension as a function of the exposure dose brings out the ion beam profiles. Using this method of determining an ion-beam point spread function, we verify a Gaussian profile of focused gallium ion beams. Graphene sputtering yield is extracted from the normalization of the measured Gaussian profiles, given a total beam current. Interestingly, profiling of unbeknown helium ion beams in this way results in asymmetry of the profile. Even triangular beam shapes are observed at certain helium FIB conditions, possibly attributable to the trimer nature of the beam source. Our method of profiling ion beams with 2D-layer perforation provides more information on ion beam profiles than the conventional sharp-edge scan method does.

scholarly journals Focused Ion Beam Milling of Single-Crystal Sapphire with A-, C-, and M-Orientations

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2871
Author(s):  
Qiuling Wen ◽  
Xinyu Wei ◽  
Feng Jiang ◽  
Jing Lu ◽  
Xipeng Xu
Keyword(s):  
Single Crystal ◽  
Surface Quality ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Crystal Orientations ◽  
Aluminum Ions ◽  
Single Crystal Sapphire

Sapphire substrates with different crystal orientations are widely used in optoelectronic applications. In this work, focused ion beam (FIB) milling of single-crystal sapphire with A-, C-, and M-orientations was performed. The material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness (Sa) of sapphire with the three crystal orientations after FIB etching were derived. The experimental results show that: The MRR of A-plane sapphire is slightly higher than that of C-plane and M-plane sapphires; the Sa of A-plane sapphire after FIB treatment is the smallest among the three different crystal orientations. These results imply that A-plane sapphire allows easier material removal during FIB milling compared with C-plane and M-plane sapphires. Moreover, the surface quality of A-plane sapphire after FIB milling is better than that of C-plane and M-plane sapphires. The theoretical calculation results show that the removal energy of aluminum ions and oxygen ions per square nanometer on the outermost surface of A-plane sapphire is the smallest. This also implies that material is more easily removed from the surface of A-plane sapphire than the surface of C-plane and M-plane sapphires by FIB milling. In addition, it is also found that higher MRR leads to lower Sa and better surface quality of sapphire for FIB etching.

Roughness Effects During Focused Ion Beam Repair of X-Ray Masks with Polycrystalline Tungsten Absorbers

1992 ◽  
Vol 279 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. R. Kola ◽  
G. K. Celler ◽  
L R. Harriott
Keyword(s):  
Material Removal ◽  
Etch Rate ◽  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Removal Rate ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Sidewall Roughness ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Polycrystalline Tungsten ◽  
Absorber Material ◽  
Defect Repair

ABSTRACTTungsten is emerging as the absorber material of choice for x-ray masks due to recent advances in the deposition of low stress films. For a practical technology, the masks must be free from defects. These defects may be in the form of excess or missing absorber. Finely focused ion beams have been used for defect repair on x-ray masks, both for removal of excess absorber material by physical sputtering and for addition of absorber material by ion-induced deposition. The eifect of ion channeling in polycrystalline tungsten films is spatially nonuniform material removal during sputtering. Different grains will have significantly different sputtering yields, depending on their orientation with respect to the direction of the ion beam. The repaired features then suffer from roughness on the bottoms and sidewalls of the sputter craters. We have investigated the use of XeF2 assisted sputtering with a 20 keV Ga+ focused ion beam to reduce this roughness. The chemical etching component of the material removal lessens the directional dependence and therefore the roughness during defect repair. It was also found that chromium etch rate was reduced in the presence of XeF2 gas while the etch rate of W was enhanced so that the removal rate of Cr is much less than that of W. We can take advantage of this etch selectivity by using a thin Cr layer under the W absorber as an etch stop layer to eliminate the roughness at the bottom of the features and a thin layer of Cr on top of the W as an etch mask for reducing the sidewall roughness.

Direct Imaging of Device Characteristics In a Focused ion Beam System

1998 ◽  
Vol 4 (S2) ◽  
pp. 652-653 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. N. Campbell ◽  
J. M. Soden
Keyword(s):  
Integrated Circuits ◽  
Failure Analysis ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Material Removal ◽  
Focused Ion Beam ◽  
Ion Beam ◽  
Yield Enhancement ◽  
The Past ◽  
Design Changes ◽  
Design Debugging

A great deal can be learned about integrated circuits (ICs) and microelectronic structures simply by imaging them in a focused ion beam (FIB) system. FIB systems have evolved during the past decade from something of a curiosity to absolutely essential tools for microelectronics design verification and failure analysis. FIB system capabilities include localized material removal, localized deposition of conductors and insulators, and imaging. A major commercial driver for FIB systems is their usefulness in the design debugging cycle by (1) rewiring ICs quickly to test design changes and (2) making connection to deep conductors to facilitate electrical probing of complex ICs. FIB milling is also used for making precision cross sections and for TEM sample preparation of microelectronic structures for failure analysis and yield enhancement applications.

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