Application of mass separated focused ion beams

With the invention of the liquid metal ion source (LMIS) in the sixties the focused ion beam (FIB) technique started an impressive development from the laboratory level to high performance industrial equipments. At present, the FIB is a very useful and versatile tool in microelectronics industry for mask and integrated circuit repair and modification, failure analysis or TEM specimen preparation, as well as in the material science for radiation damage and sputtering investigations, for grain size and distribution analysis in metals and alloys, for the formation of silicides or the fabrication of micro-tools. For special purposes in the field of research and development, like writing ion implantation or ion mixing in the µm- or sub-µm range different ion species are needed. Therefore alloy LMIS are used. The energy distribution of the ions from an alloy LMIS is one of the determining factors for the performance of the FIB equipment. Different source materials like Au73Ge27, Au77Ge14Si9, Co36Nd64, Er69Ni31, and Er70Fe22Ni5Cr3 were investigated with respect to the energy spread of the different ion species as a function of emission current I, ion mass m and temperature T. For single charged ions the predicted dependence of the energy spread according to DE µ I2/3 m1/3 T1/2 found for Ga could be confirmed. The alloy LMIS`s discussed above have been used in the Rossendorf FIB system IMSA-100 especially for writing implantation to fabricate sub-µm pattern without any lithographic steps. So a Co-FIB was applied for the ion beam synthesis of CoSi2 micro-structures. Additionally, the possibility of varying the current density with the FIB by changing the pixel dwell-time was used for radiation damage investigations in Si and SiC at elevated implantation temperatures. Furthermore, a broad spectrum of ions was employed to study the sputtering process depending on temperature, angle of incidence and ion mass on a couple of target materials using the volume loss method. All these examples underline the importance of a FIB in modern research and the new possibilities given by a mass separated system applying a broad spectrum of ion species.