Apparatus and method for forming a solid immersion lens using a binary bitmap milling pattern
AssigneeAvago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
InventorsDavid Winslow Niles, Ronald William Kee
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for forming a solid immersion lens (SIL) includes generating a focused ion beam, and projecting the focused ion beam onto an optical medium at locations defined by a binary bitmap milling pattern, wherein the locations at which the focused ion beam impact a surface of the optical medium are randomized over successive raster scans of the surface of the optical medium to form at least a portion of a hemispherical structure in the optical medium.
Claims20
An apparatus for forming a solid immersion lens (SIL) in an optical medium, comprising:
- a milling head configured to generate a focused ion beam;
- and
- a binary bitmap milling pattern defining locations at which the focused ion beam is projected onto a surface of the optical medium, wherein the locations at which the focused ion beam impact the surface of the optical medium are located completely within the binary bitmap milling pattern and are randomized over successive raster scans of the surface of the optical medium, wherein the binary bitmap milling pattern comprises a plurality of pixels, a first portion of the pixels defining locations where the focused ion beam impacts the surface of the optical medium and a second portion of the pixels defining locations where the focused ion beam is prevented from impacting the surface of the optical medium, each successive raster scan comprising a subsequent binary bitmap milling pattern having a different distribution of pixels that impact the surface of the optical medium and that are prevented from impacting the surface of the optical medium than a previous binary bitmap milling pattern, each different distribution of pixels comprising a functionally equivalent binary bitmap milling pattern.
A method for forming a solid immersion lens (SIL), comprising:
- generating a focused ion beam;
- projecting the focused ion beam onto an optical medium at locations defined by a binary bitmap milling pattern, wherein the locations at which the focused ion beam impact a surface of the optical medium are located completely within the binary bitmap milling pattern and are randomized over successive raster scans of the surface of the optical medium to form at least a portion of a hemispherical structure in the optical medium;
- and
- using the binary bitmap milling pattern to define first locations where the focused ion beam impacts a surface of the optical medium and to define second locations where the focused ion beam is prevented from impacting the surface of the optical medium, each successive raster scan comprising a subsequent binary bitmap milling pattern having a different distribution of pixels that impact the surface of the optical medium and that are prevented from impacting the surface of the optical medium than a previous binary bitmap milling pattern, each different distribution of pixels comprising a functionally equivalent binary bitmap milling pattern.
An apparatus for forming a solid immersion lens (SIL) in bulk silicon, comprising:
- a milling head configured to generate a focused ion beam;
- and
- a binary bitmap milling pattern defining locations at which the focused ion beam is projected onto a surface of the bulk silicon, wherein the locations at which the focused ion beam impact the surface of the bulk silicon are located completely within the binary bitmap milling pattern and are randomized over successive raster scans of the surface of the bulk silicon by relative rotation between the rastering axes of the focused ion beam and the surface of the bulk silicon, the relative rotation occurring as the focused ion beam follows a boustrophedon pattern.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.