Multi-Source Plasma Focused Ion Beam System
AssigneeFEI Company
InventorsNoel Smith, Clive D. Chandler, Mark W. Utlaut, Paul P. Tesch, David William Tuggle
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Abstract
The present invention provides a plasma ion beam system that includes multiple gas sources and that can be used for performing multiple operations using different ion species to create or alter submicron features of a work piece. The system preferably uses an inductively coupled, magnetically enhanced ion beam source, suitable in conjunction with probe-forming optics sources to produce ion beams of a wide variety of ions without substantial kinetic energy oscillations induced by the source, thereby permitting formation of a high resolution beam.
Claims20
A method of charged particle beam processing, comprising:
- providing an ion beam system having a first gas supply and a second gas supply, the first and second gas supplies being selectively connected to a plasma chamber of an ion source for producing ions of a first type or ions of a second type, respectively, the ion beam system including focusing optics for forming a beam of ions extracted from the plasma chamber;
- selectively causing a gas from the first gas supply to enter the plasma chamber;
- and
- processing a work piece inside a vacuum chamber using a beam of ions of the first type extracted from the plasma chamber;
- selectively causing a gas from the second gas supply to enter the plasma chamber;
- and
- processing the work piece using a beam of ions of the second type extracted from the plasma chamber, in which the work piece is not removed from the vacuum chamber between processing the work piece using the beam of ions of a first type and processing the work piece using the beam of ions of a second type.
13-29. (canceled)
A focused ion beam system for multi-step processing of a work piece, comprising:
- a sample chamber configured to hold a work piece therein;
- an ion source comprising a plasma chamber;
- an ion beam focusing column configured to focus ions from the plasma chamber into focused ion beams;
- and
- wherein the ion beam system is configured to carry out a multiple-step processing of the work piece without removing the ion source, the multi-step processing including sequentially processing the work piece with focused ion beams comprising different ion species, and
- wherein the ion source is configured to provide the different ion species for the focused ion beams of the multi-step processing by sequentially ionizing different gases within the plasma chamber.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.