Ion milling (ion‐beam etching), 1954–1975: A bibliography

1975 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1389-1398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald T. Hawkins
Author(s):  
Ron Anderson

For the last thirty years, ion milling has been an indispensable part of preparing TEM specimens in the physical sciences. While great improvements have been made in our ability to thin most materials to the point where ion milling may not be a requirement, there will still be a need to utilize ion milling to clean and polish specimens and to provide small amounts of incremental thinning as needed. Thanks mainly to the work of Bama we now understand a great deal about the physics of ion milling. We also benefit from the works of a number of investigators who have studied the artifacts produced by ion milling (see Barber for a review).Ion milling is a subset of the topic “dry etching,” which consists of two major categories: glow discharge methods and ion beam methods. Glow discharge methods include plasma etching, reactive ion etching, and glow discharge sputter etching. These techniques have little application in TEM specimen preparation aside from surface cleaning. The reactive ion etching literature is a source for suggesting gas/specimen combinations to perform chemically-assisted ion beam etching (CAIBE), to be discussed below. The other major dry etching category, ion beam methods, includes ion milling, reactive ion beam etching, and CAIBE.


1995 ◽  
Vol 396 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.F. Seng ◽  
P.A. Barnes ◽  
M.L. Lovejoy ◽  
L.P. Fu ◽  
G.D. Gilliland ◽  
...  

AbstractLow energy neutral Ar ion-beam etching of n-GaAs was investigated as a possible “cleaning” procedure prior to contact metallization. The ion-beam source energy was varied between 35 eV and 1200 eV at a fixed current density of 1 mA/cm2. The effects of ion-milling on lightly doped n-GaAs were analyzed electrically by measuring current-voltage (IV) and capacitance-voltage (CV) characteristics of Schottky barriers formed after the ion-milling. The metal semiconductor barriers were prepared immediately following ion-milling without breaking vacuum. Photoluminescence and Rutherford Backscattering (RBS) were used to determine if any physical modification of the surface and near surface region of the ion-milled substrates had occurred.


2004 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-43
Author(s):  
Shane Roberts ◽  
Daniel Flatoff

Modern microelectronics have rapidly decreased in geometry to enhance the speed and processing power of computers. Advanced devices are approaching design rules of sub 0.13 micron in size, and the trend continues at the rate dictated by Moore's Law, Coupled with this reduction in device size, is a change in materials used for producing these devices. Traditional aluminum interconnect metallurgy and oxide dielectric materials are being replaced with copper and low-kmaterials in an effort to continue the trend of shrinking device sizes and higher processing capacities.These changes in materials and device sizes have provided the impetus for alternative methods for producing cross sections. Although focused ion beam instrumentation has been successfully used for preparing cross sections, a combinatorial approach using polishing and argon ion milling has been found to dramatically enhance the ability to produce high quality cross sectional samples in a reasonably short amount of time.


1990 ◽  
Vol 199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Alani ◽  
Joseph Jones ◽  
Peter Swann

ABSTRACTChemically assisted ion beam etching (CAIBE) is widely practiced in the semiconductor industry. In the electron microscopy field, the CAIBE technique offers a new method for preparing specimens that are difficult to make by conventional inert gas milling techniques, e.g. indium containing type III-V compound semiconductors. CAIBE employs a collimated, molecular beam of a reactive species, e.g. iodine in combination with a conventional inert gas fast atom beam for thinning TEM specimens. CAIBE should not be confused with reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) which takes a chemically active species (e.g. iodine) and converts it into a beam of fast ions directed at the sample. CAIBE has three major advantages over (RIBE): i) corrosion of the ion gun components does not occur, ii) much smaller quantities of reactive gas are required and hence pump maintenance and pollution problems are minimized, iii) a wider range of chemicals may be used. Superior results are obtained if CAIBE is done on only one side of the specimen at a time. This is achieved using a new type of specimen holder post which enables very low angle milling and minimizes specimen contamination by sputtering from the holder. This new technique is described and results from iodine CAIBE milling, iodine RIBE milling and argon ion milling are compared for InP, InSb and GaAs as well as metals like tungsten. Also, the beneficial effects of very low angle (∼1°) argon ion milling in preparing specimens of silicide containing Si based IC wafers is reported.


Author(s):  
P.G. Pawar ◽  
P. Duhamel ◽  
G.W. Monk

A beam of ions of mass greater than a few atomic mass units and with sufficient energy can remove atoms from the surface of a solid material at a useful rate. A system used to achieve this purpose under controlled atmospheres is called an ion miliing machine. An ion milling apparatus presently available as IMMI-III with a IMMIAC was used in this investigation. Unless otherwise stated, all the micro milling operations were done with Ar+ at 6kv using a beam current of 100 μA for each of the two guns, with a specimen tilt of 15° from the horizontal plane.It is fairly well established that ion bombardment of the surface of homogeneous materials can produce surface topography which resembles geological erosional features.


Author(s):  
M. Spector ◽  
A. C. Brown

Ion beam etching and freeze fracture techniques were utilized in conjunction with scanning electron microscopy to study the ultrastructure of normal and diseased human hair. Topographical differences in the cuticular scale of normal and diseased hair were demonstrated in previous scanning electron microscope studies. In the present study, ion beam etching and freeze fracture techniques were utilized to reveal subsurface ultrastructural features of the cuticle and cortex.Samples of normal and diseased hair including monilethrix, pili torti, pili annulati, and hidrotic ectodermal dysplasia were cut from areas near the base of the hair. In preparation for ion beam etching, untreated hairs were mounted on conducting tape on a conducting silicon substrate. The hairs were ion beam etched by an 18 ky argon ion beam (5μA ion current) from an ETEC ion beam etching device. The ion beam was oriented perpendicular to the substrate. The specimen remained stationary in the beam for exposures of 6 to 8 minutes.


1991 ◽  
Vol 223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Jackman ◽  
Glenn C. Tyrrell ◽  
Duncan Marshall ◽  
Catherine L. French ◽  
John S. Foord

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the issue of chlorine adsorption on GaAs(100) with respect to the mechanisms of thermal and ion-enhanced etching. The use of halogenated precursors eg. dichloroethane is also discussed in regard to chemically assisted ion beam etching (CAIBE).


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.S. Bonifacio ◽  
P. Nowakowski ◽  
M.J. Campin ◽  
M.L. Ray ◽  
P.E. Fischione

Abstract Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) specimens are typically prepared using the focused ion beam (FIB) due to its site specificity, and fast and accurate thinning capabilities. However, TEM and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) analysis may be limited due to the resulting FIB-induced artifacts. This work identifies FIB artifacts and presents the use of argon ion milling for the removal of FIB-induced damage for reproducible TEM specimen preparation of current and future fin field effect transistor (FinFET) technologies. Subsequently, high-quality and electron-transparent TEM specimens of less than 20 nm are obtained.


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