Selective area nucleation and growth method for metal chemical vapor deposition using focused ion beams

A method of depositing a material along a desired locus on a substrate, comprising:

• exposing the substrate to a gas to form an adlayer of said gas on the substrate,
• scanning said adlayer along said locus with a focused ion beam (FIB) at an ion dosage on the order of about 10.sup.12 -10.sup.16 ions cm.sup.2 to form nucleation sites in said adlayer upon the substrate along said locus,
• terminating said FIB scanning,
• heating said substrate, and
• exposing the heated substrate to a source gas which contains said material after the termination of said FIB scanning,
• said substrate being heated during source gas exposure to a temperature high enough for said material to grow upon said nucleation sites from said source gas and form a substantially continuous deposit along said locus, but below the source gas' spontaneous thermal decomposition temperature for the period of time said substrate is heated and exposed to said source gas.

A focused ion beam (FIB) processing method, comprising:

• scanning a substrate along a desired locus with a FIB, at an ion dosage on the order of about 10.sup.12 -10.sup.16 ions/cm.sup.2 to form nucleation sites on the substrate along said locus,
• terminating the FIB scanning,
• heating the substrate,
• exposing the heated substrate to a gas which includes a material to be deposited along said locus,
• said substrate being heated during said gas exposure to a temperature high enough for said material to grow upon said nucleation sites from said gas and form a substantially continuous deposit along said locus, but below the gas' spontaneous thermal decomposition temperature for the period of time said substrate is heated and exposed to said gas, and
• processing the substrate with at least one additional FIB process at an ion dosage on the same order of magnitude as the dosage used for scanning along said desired locus, said at least one additional FIB process comprising implantation, lithography and/or sputtering.

An in-situ method of forming a circuit connection during the fabrication of an IC chip, comprising:

• scanning the chip along the path of the desired circuit connection with a focused ion beam (FIB) at an ion dosage on the order of about 10.sup.12 -10.sup.16 ions/cm.sup.2 to form nucleation sites on the chip along said path,
• heating the chip, and
• exposing the heated chip to a gas which includes a conductive material,
• said chip being heated during said gas exposure to a temperature high enough for said conductive material to grow upon said nucleation sites from said gas and form a substantially continuous conductive deposit along said path, but below the gas' spontaneous thermal decomposition temperature for the period of time said chip is heated and exposed to said gas.

An in-situ method of repairing a circuit connection on an IC chip, comprising:

• scanning the chip along the path of the circuit connection with a focused ion beam (FIB) at an ion dosage on the order of about 10.sup.12 -10.sup.16 ions/cm.sup.2 to form nucleation sites on the chip along said path,
• heating the chip, and
• exposing the heated chip to a gas which includes a conductive material,
• said chip being heated during said gas exposure to a temperature high enough for said conductive material to grow upon said nucleation sites from said gas and form a substantially continuous conductive deposit along said path, but below the gas' spontaneous thermal decomposition temperature for the period of time said chip is heated and exposed to said gas.

An in-situ method of forming a mask for use in the fabrication of IC chips, comprising:

• scanning a mask substrate along paths corresponding to desired lines on the chip with a focused ion beam (FIB) at an ion dosage on the order of about 10.sup.12 -10.sup.16 ions/cm.sup.2 to form nucleation site on the mask substrate along said paths,
• heating the mask substrate, and
• exposing the heated mask substrate to a gas which includes an opaque material,
• said mask substrate being heated during said gas exposure to a temperature high enough for said opaque material to grow upon said nucleation sites from said gas and form substantially continuous opaque deposits along said paths, but below the gas' spontaneous thermal decomposition temperature for the period of time said mask substrate is heated and exposed to said gas.

An in-situ method of repairing a line on a mask used for the fabrication of IC chip, comprising:

• scanning the mask along said line with a focused ion beam (FIB) at an ion dosage on the order to about 10.sup.12 -10.sup.16 ions/cm.sup.2 to form nucleation sites on the mask along said line,
• heating the mask, and
• exposing the heated mask to a gas which includes an opaque material,
• said mask being heated during said gas exposure to a temperature high enough for said opaque material to grow upon said nucleation sites from said gas and form a substantially continuous opaque deposit along said line, but below the gas' spontaneous thermal decomposition temperature for the period of time said mask is heated and exposed to said gas.