Uniform milling of adjacent materials using parallel scanning fib
AssigneeApplied Materials Israel Ltd.
InventorYehuda Zur
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of evaluating a region of a sample that includes two or more sub-regions adjacent to each other that have different milling rates. The method can include: scanning a focused ion beam over the region during a single scan frame such that the ion beam is scanned over a first sub-region of the region having a first milling rate at a first scan rate and then scanned over a second sub-region of the region having a second milling rate at a second scan rate, where the second milling rate is faster than the first milling rate and second scan rate is faster than the first scan rate; and repeating the scanning process a plurality of times to etch the region to a desired depth.
Claims20
A method of evaluating a region of a sample that includes a first sub-region having a first milling rate and a second sub-region, adjacent to the first sub-region, having a second milling rate different than the first milling rate, the method comprising:
- milling the region by scanning a focused ion beam over the region a plurality of iterations to etch the region to a desired depth, wherein each time the focused ion beam is scanned over the region the beam is scanned over the first sub-region at a first scan rate and then scanned over the second sub-region at a second scan rate different than the first scan rate.
A system for evaluating a region of a sample that includes a first sub-region having a first milling rate and a second sub-region, adjacent to the first sub-region, having a second milling rate different than the first milling rate, the system comprising:
- a vacuum chamber;
- a sample support configured to hold a sample within the vacuum chamber during a sample evaluation process;
- a focused ion beam (FIB) column configured to direct a charged particle beam into the vacuum chamber;
- a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including a plurality of computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to mill the region by scanning a focused ion beam over the region a plurality of iterations to etch the region to a desired depth, wherein each time the focused ion beam is scanned over the region the beam is scanned over the first sub-region at a first scan rate and then scanned over the second sub-region at a second scan rate different than the first scan rate.
A method of evaluating a region of a sample that includes two or more sub-regions adjacent to each other that have different milling rates, the method comprising:
- milling the region by scanning a focused ion beam over a first sub-region of the region having a first milling rate X times and scanning the focused ion beam over a second section of the region having a second milling rate different than the first milling rate Y times, where X and Y are selected to compensate for the difference between the first and second milling rates such that the region is milled a substantially uniform amount;
- repeating the milling process a plurality of times to etch the region to a desired depth.
A system for evaluating a region of a sample that includes a first sub-region having a first milling rate and a second sub-region, adjacent to the first sub-region, having a second milling rate different than the first milling rate, the system comprising:
- a vacuum chamber;
- a sample support configured to hold a sample within the vacuum chamber during a sample evaluation process;
- a focused ion beam (FIB) column configured to direct a charged particle beam into the vacuum chamber;
- a processor and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory including a plurality of computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the system to:
- mill the region by scanning a focused ion beam over the first sub-region of the region having a first milling rate X times and scanning the focused ion beam over a second section of the region having a second milling rate different than the first milling rate Y times, where X and Y are selected to compensate for the difference between the first and second milling rates such that the region is milled a substantially uniform amount;
- and
- repeat the milling process a plurality of times to etch the region to a desired depth.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.