Multi-source plasma focused ion beam system
AssigneeFEI Company
InventorsNoel Smith, Clive D. Chandler, Mark Utlaut, Paul P. Tesch, Dave Tuggle
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Abstract
The present invention provides a plasma ion beam system that includes multiple gas sources and that can be used for performing multiple operations using different ion species to create or alter submicron features of a work piece. The system preferably uses an inductively coupled, magnetically enhanced ion beam source, suitable in conjunction with probe-forming optics sources to produce ion beams of a wide variety of ions without substantial kinetic energy oscillations induced by the source, thereby permitting formation of a high resolution beam.
Claims29
A method of charged particle beam processing, comprising:
- providing an ion beam system having a first gas supply and a second gas supply, the first and second gas supplies being selectively connected to the plasma chamber of an ion source for producing ions of a first type or ions of a second type, respectively, the ion beam system including focusing optics for forming a beam of ions extracted from the plasma chamber;
- selectively causing a gas from the first gas supply to enter the plasma chamber;
- and
- processing a work piece using a beam of ions of the first type extracted from the plasma chamber;
- selectively causing a gas from the second gas supply to enter the plasma chamber;
- processing the work piece using a beam of ions of the second type extracted from the plasma chamber, in which the work piece is not removed from the vacuum chamber and the vacuum chamber is not exposed to atmosphere between processing the work piece using the beam of ions of a first type and processing the work piece using the beam of ions of a second type.
An ion beam system, comprising:
- a plurality of source gas connections for connecting multiple source gases to a vessel that encloses a region of plasma;
- a vessel enclosing the region of plasma;
- an antenna in proximity to the vessel, the antenna excited by an RF electrical source to induce ionization of the plasma;
- circuitry that couples the antenna to the electrical source to substantially reduce oscillations in the ionized plasma;
- and
- an extraction mechanism to extract the ionized plasma into a beam.
An ion beam system for treatment of a specimen, comprising:
- an organometallic gas coupled to a plasma chamber;
- a plasma chamber to which the organometallic gas is coupled;
- a helical antenna positioned around the plasma chamber and excited to ionize the organometallic gas within the plasma chamber;
- circuitry in a network comprising the antenna to impedance-match a source of excitation to the antenna;
- and
- an extraction mechanism for extracting an ionized organometallic beam for deposition of the metal of the beam onto a specimen.
A method for producing an ion beam, comprising:
- providing a plurality of different gas sources to be individually and sequentially selected to be coupled to a plasma chamber;
- providing circuitry coupled to an antenna to reduce modulation of a plasma potential;
- selectively coupling to the plasma chamber a first one of the plurality of different gases and then at least a second one of the plurality of gases;
- applying RF power to an antenna that couples energy to the selected gas within the chamber to induce ionization of a gas to produce an ion plasma;
- and
- extracting an ionized beam from a region of extraction in proximity to the antenna.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.