Projection ion beam machining apparatus

Abstract

In a projection ion beam machining apparatus having a liquid metal ion source, a combination of two or three electrostatic lenses arranged between the liquid metal ion source and a sample and a stencil mask exchangeably arranged in the combination of the electrostatic lenses, when a distance from substantial center of the electrostatic lens most proximate to the ion source and an ion emitting portion of the ion source is designated by Lo, a distance from the substantial center of the electiostatic lens most proximiate to the sample and the surface of the sample is designated by Li and a distance between the substantial centers of the two lenses is designated by L, by making a value of (L/Lo)(L/Li) equal to or larger than 400, current density on the sample of ion beam accelerated to several 10 kV for projecting a pattern of a stencil mask can be made equal to or larger than 20 mA per 1 square cm and resolution of edge can be made equal to or smaller than 0.2 μm when the size of the ion beam is 5 μm. As a result, a region having a size equal to or smaller than several 10 μm can be machined at speed several times or more as fast as that of FIB having equivalent machining accuracy.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.