Dual mode gas field ion source
AssigneeICT Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft für Halbleiterprüftechnik mbH
InventorsJuergen Frosien, Dieter Winkler
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Abstract
A focused ion beam device is provided, including: an ion beam column adapted to house a gas field ion source emitter with an emitter tip and an emitter area for generating ions, a heating means adapted to heat the emitter tip, one or more gas inlets adapted to introduce a first gas and at least one second gas to the emitter area, an objective lens adapted to focus the ion beam generated from the first gas or the second gas, and a controller adapted to switch between a first emitter tip temperature and a second emitter tip temperature for generating an ion beam of ions of the first gas or an ion beam of ions of the at least one second gas.
Claims24
A focused ion beam device, comprising:
- an ion beam column adapted to house a gas field ion source emitter with an emitter tip and an emitter area for generating ions;
- a heating means adapted to heat the emitter tip;
- one or more gas inlets adapted to introduce a mixture of a first gas and at least one second gas to the emitter area, wherein the first gas and the at least one second gas are each different gases;
- and
- a controller adapted to switch between a first emitter tip temperature and at least a second emitter tip temperature for consecutively generating at least two different ion beams of the first gas and of the at least one second gas, wherein the first emitter tip temperature and the at least one second emitter tip temperature provide ionization of different gases of the gas mixture.
A method of operating a focused ion beam device, comprising:
- biasing an emitter with an emitter tip within an emitter area wherein ions are generated to a potential for providing an extraction voltage for emitting an ion beam of at least one gas of a mixture of a first gas and at least one second gas, wherein the first gas and the at least one second gas are each different gases;
- consecutively heating the emitter tip to a first emitter tip temperature to emit an ion beam of the first gas of the mixture, wherein the first emitter tip temperature provides ionization of the first gas of the mixture, and
- heating the emitter tip to at least one second emitter tip temperature to emit at least one ion beam of the at least one second gas of the mixture, wherein the at least one second emitter tip temperature provides ionization of the at least one second gas of the gas mixture.
A focused ion beam device, comprising:
- an ion beam column housing an emitter with an emitter tip and an emitter area for generating ions from a mixture of a first gas and at least one second gas, wherein the first gas and the at least one second gas are each different gases;
- and
- means for switching between a first emitter tip temperature and at least one second emitter tip temperature for consecutively generating at least two different ion beams from the mixture of the first gas and of the at least one second gas, wherein the first gas is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen and helium and the at least one second gas has an atomic mass of 10 g/mol or higher.
A method of operating a focused ion beam device, comprising:
- introducing a gas mixture of a first gas and at least one second gas to an emitter area of the focused ion beam device, wherein the first gas and the at least one second gas are each different gases;
- and
- consecutively generating at least two different ion beams from the first gas and the at least one second gas by switching between a first emitter tip temperature and at least one second emitter tip temperature, wherein the first emitter tip temperature and the at least one second emitter tip temperature provide ionization of different gases of the gas mixture.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.