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US 12,725,757 B2Granted
Support structure of inverted lamella for tall ROI
AssigneeFEI Company
InventorsJaroslav Stárek, Jamie Dee Gravell, Jaroslav Maniš, Tomáš Onderlička
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Abstract
Lamellae with thin regions for TEM of regions of interest include oppositely situated S-shaped cut faces that define a waist region. In some examples, the waist has a thickness of less than 25 nm and defines a double tapered region of height of between 400 nm and 800 nm that is suitable for TEM. A portion of the lamella at the top surface can comprising a metallic or other coating than serves to support the lamella.
Claims19
A method of preparing a lamella, comprising:
- directing an ion beam to a back surface of a specimen at a first angle and at a first dose to form a first cut face having an S-shape;
- and
- directing the ion beam to the back surf ace of the specimen at a second angle and at a second dose to form a second cut face having a second S-shape, wherein the first dose and the second dose are selected to produce a lamella having a waist.
A lamella, comprising:
- a specimen section defined by tapered cut faces that extend from a surface corresponding to a specimen back surface to a waist and from a specimen surface corresponding to a specimen front surface to the waist, wherein the tapered cut faces are S-curved cut faces have oppositely curved S-shapes.
A lamella, comprising:
- a specimen section defined by tapered cut faces that extend from a surface corresponding to a specimen back surface to a waist and from a specimen surface corresponding to a specimen front surface to the waist, wherein the lamella has a height of between 2 μm and 10 μm, 5 μm and 10 μm, or 6 μm to 9 μm, a waist thickness is less than 10 nm, 20 nm, 50 nm, 40 nm, 50 nm, or 100 nm, a distance from the specimen surface corresponding to the front surface of the specimen section to the waist is greater than 100 nm, 200 nm, 500 nm, 400 nm, or 500 nm, and a depth of the specimen section is between 1 μm and 10 μm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.