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US 2003/0150836 A1Published application
Mass production of cross-section TEM samples by focused ion beam deposition and anisotropic etching
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsLancy Tsung, Adolfo Anciso
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of preparing a TEM sample. A focused ion beam is used to deposit- a mask on the material to be sampled. Reactive ion etching removes material not protected by the mask, leaving a wall thin enough to be imaged by TEM.
Claims16
A method of producing a thin cross-section of a material, comprising the steps of:
- depositing a mask on said material using a focused ion beam;
- etching said material around said mask using anisotropic etching.
A method of preparing a transmission electron microscope sample, comprising the steps of:
- depositing a-mask pattern on a first material using a focused ion beam, said mask pattern deposited using a second material having a different selectivity to etching than said first material;
- etching said material using anisotropic etching to produce a sample that is sufficiently thin to allow imaging in a transmission electron microscope, said anisotropic etching being more selective to said first material than said second material.
A method of preparing a transmission electron microscope sample, comprising the steps of:
- depositing a thin oxide layer on a material;
- depositing a mask on said material using a focused ion beam;
- etching said material using anisotropic etching to produce a sample that is at least partly transparent to a transmission electron microscope.
A sample material, comprising:
- a thin wall of material suitable for use in transmission electron microscopy;
- wherein said thin wall of material is prepared by depositing a mask using a focused ion beam and etching around said mask using an anisotropic etching method.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.