Topic
Liquid metal ion source
About: Liquid metal ion source is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 576 publications have been published within this topic receiving 6655 citations.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
TL;DR: The focused ion beam field has been spurred by the invention of the liquid metal ion source and by the utilization of focusing columns with mass separation capability, which has led to the use of alloy ion sources making available a large menu of ion species, in particular the dopants of Si and GaAs as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Ions of kiloelectron volt energies incident on a solid surface produce a number of effects: several atoms are sputtered off, several electrons are emitted, chemical reactions may be induced, atoms are displaced from their equilibrium positions, and ions implant themselves in the solid, altering its properties. Some of these effects, such as sputtering and implantation are widely used in semiconductor device fabrication and in other fields. Thus the capability to focus a beam of ions to submicrometer dimensions, i.e., dimensions compatible with the most demanding fabrication procedures, is an important development. The focused ion beam field has been spurred by the invention of the liquid metal ion source and by the utilization of focusing columns with mass separation capability. This has led to the use of alloy ion sources making available a large menu of ion species, in particular the dopants of Si and GaAs. The ability to sputter and to also induce deposition by causing breakdown of an adsorbed film has produced an immediate application of focused ion beams to photomask repair. The total number of focused ion beamfabrication systems in use worldwide is about 35, about 25 of them in Japan. In addition, there are many more simpler focused ion beam columns for specialized uses. The interest is growing rapidly. The following range of specifications of these systems has been reported: accelerating potential 3 to 200 kV, ion current density in focal spot up to 10 A/cm2, beam diameters from 0.05 to 1 μm, deflection accuracy of the beam over the surface ±0.1 μm, and ion species available Ga, Au, Si, Be, B, As, P, etc. Some of the applications which have been demonstrated or suggested include: mask repair, lithography (to replace electron beamlithography), direct, patterned, implantationdoping of semiconductors, ion induced deposition for circuit repair or rewiring, scanning ion microscopy, and scanning ion mass spectroscopy.
629 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a magnetically enhanced, inductively coupled plasma ion source has been developed to address focused ion beam (FIB) applications not satisfied by the liquid metal ion source (LMIS) based FIB.
Abstract: A high brightness plasma ion source has been developed to address focused ion beam (FIB) applications not satisfied by the liquid metal ion source (LMIS) based FIB. The plasma FIB described here is capable of satisfying applications requiring high mill rates (>100μm3∕s) with non-gallium ions and has demonstrated imaging capabilities with sub- 100-nm resolution. The virtual source size, angular intensity, mass spectra, and energy spread of the source have been determined with argon and xenon. This magnetically enhanced, inductively coupled plasma source has exhibited a reduced brightness (βr) of 5.4×103Am−2sr−1V−1, with a full width half maximum axial energy spread (ΔE) of 10eV when operated with argon. With xenon, βr=9.1×103Am−2sr−1V−1 and ΔE=7eV. With these source parameters, an optical column with sufficient demagnification is capable of forming a sub-25-nm spot size at 30keV and 1pA. The angular intensity of this source is nominally three orders of magnitude greater than a LMIS making the source more a...
177 citations
Patent•
9 Feb 1996TL;DR: In this paper, a focused ion beam is irradiated onto a silicon wafer or device to conduct on a particular position of the sample a fine machining work, a fine layer accumulation, and an analysis.
Abstract: A processing method and a processing apparatus realizing the method use a focused ion beam generator. The apparatus includes a plasma or liquid metal ion source producing ions not influencing electric characteristics of a sample, an ion beam generator for extracting ions from the ion source into an ion beam, an ion beam focusing device for focusing the ion beam, an irradiator for irradiating the focused ion beam onto the sample, and a sample chamber in which the sample to be irradiated for processing is installed. The focused ion beam is irradiated onto a sample such as a silicon wafer or device to conduct on a particular position of the sample a fine machining work, a fine layer accumulation, and an analysis.
138 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe first applications of a time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (TOF-SIMS) scanning microprobe, based on a high mass resolution TOF•SIMS instrument, combined with two pulsed primary ion sources.
Abstract: This article describes first applications of a time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (TOF‐SIMS) scanning microprobe, based on a high mass resolution TOF‐SIMS instrument, combined with two pulsed primary ion sources: (a) 10 keV Ga liquid metal ion source (LMIS), probe size: 0.5–1 μm; (b) 10 keV electron impact (EI) ion source (Ar+,Xe+,O+2), probe size 4–10 μm. The detection limits for elemental and molecular surface species as a function of probe size are discussed. At a lateral resolution of 1 μm secondary ion images with about 1000 counts/pixel can be acquired in about 30 min. The high useful yields achieved by TOF‐SIMS allows the analysis of submonolayers of inorganic as well as organic materials at high lateral resolution. Currently up to 24 secondary ion images for different masses and a complete mass spectrum can be acquired simultaneously. The performance of the instrument is demonstrated by multielemental and molecular imaging of inorganic and organic patterns on Si wafers. Secondary ion i...
104 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a short review of the current understanding of liquid-metal ion sources is presented, covering the following topics: theoretical and experimental properties of LMIS, current/voltage characteristics, and control mechanisms.
97 citations
Related Topics (5)
Performance Metrics
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 1 |
| 2020 | 2 |
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2018 | 3 |
| 2017 | 6 |
| 2016 | 7 |