Method and apparatus for transmission electron microscopy
AssigneeImec Vzw
InventorsUmberto Celano, Kristof Paredis, Wilfried Vandervorst
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The disclosure is related to a method and apparatus for transmission electron microscopy wherein a TEM specimen is subjected to at least one thinning step by scratching at least an area of the specimen with an SPM probe, and wherein the thinned area is subjected to an SPM acquisition step, using the same SPM probe or another probe.
Claims20
A method for performing transmission electron microscopy (TEM) on a TEM specimen, comprising:
- thinning at least an area of the TEM specimen by scratching a surface of the TEM specimen with a probe suitable for Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM);
- performing an SPM acquisition step on the thinned area;
- exposing the thinned area to an electron beam;
- and
- taking a TEM image of the thinned area.
A TEM grid for holding a lamella-shaped TEM specimen, the grid having a pillar-shaped feature provided with a slit in a longitudinal direction of the pillar-shaped feature, so as to form two leg portions on either side of the slit, wherein the leg portions are configured to support the lamella-shaped TEM specimen with a majority of the lamella-shaped TEM specimen being positioned over the slit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.