US 5,854,488 AGranted

Ion beam machining method and device thereof

AssigneeSeiko Instruments Inc.

InventorKazuo Aita

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Abstract

To carry out machining by a focused ion beam using an assist gas including steam gas. In a machining operation by a focused ion beam by using an assist gas including steam gas, as a method of supplying steam gas, the steam gas is supplied from salt hydrate and the pressure of steam is controlled by controlling the temperature of the salt hydrate. As a method for supplying steam gas, when the steam gas is introduced into a vacuum chamber, the flow rate needs to be controlled by a control valve since the vapor pressure of water is very high, which amounts to a complicated gas supply system and which amounts to an expensive device. However, steam vapor having a low pressure is supplied by using salt hydrate, the introduction of gas to a vacuum chamber is made feasible only by passing the gas through a friction pipe and the amount of introducing a gas can be controlled by a simple system where only the temperature of the salt hydrate is controlled by an inexpensive temperature controller.

Claims5

Dependent claims

A focused ion beam machining device in which ions generated from an ion source are clustered into a focused ion beam by an ion lens system in a vacuum tank exhausted by a vacuum pump, the focused ion beam is irradiated by scanning on a predetermined region of a surface of a sample where a thin film is formed on a surface of a matrix thereof by a scanning electrode, secondary particles emitted from the sample are detected by a detector, signals from the detector are supplied to a display device via an A/D converter thereby imaging the sample and an ion beam machining is conducted with respect to the predetermined region based on a result of imaging;

wherein in an assist gas supply unit having a gas injector for supplying an assist gas at least including steam gas to the predetermined region and the gas injector is constituted by a nozzle for blowing the assist gas, one or more of reservoirs constituting an etching gas supply source, heaters for heating at least one of the reservoirs, temperature sensors for measuring temperatures of the reservoirs, a temperature controller of the heaters for controlling the temperatures of the reservoirs based on measured values of the temperature sensors and a valve installed between the temperature controller and the gas injector, a salt hydrate for supplying the steam gas is filled in the reservoirs provided with the heaters and the temperature sensors, the steam gas for blowing to the predetermined region is supplied by heating the salt hydrate and an amount of the steam gas is controlled by controlling the temperatures of the reservoirs by the temperature sensors, the heaters and the temperature controller.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.