Plasma ion sources and ion beam technology in microfabrications

For over decades, focused ion beam (FIB) has been playing a very important role in microscale technology and research, among which, semiconductor microfabrication is one of its biggest application area. As the dimensions of IC devices are scaled down, it has shown the need for new ion beam tools and new approaches to the fabrication of small-scale devices. In the meanwhile, nanotechnology has also deeply involved in material science research and bioresearch in recent years. The conventional FIB systems which utilize liquid gallium ion sources to achieve nanometer scale resolution can no longer meet the various requirements raised from such a wide application area such as low contamination, high throughput and so on. The drive towards controlling materials properties at nanometer length scales relies on the availability of efficient tools. In this thesis, three novel ion beam tools have been developed and investigated as the alternatives for the conventional FIB systems in some particular applications. An integrated focused ion beam (FIB) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) system has been developed for direct doping or surface modification. This new instrument employs a mini-RF driven plasma source to generate focused ion beam with various ion species, a FEI two-lens electron (2LE) column for SEM imaging, and a five-axis manipulator system for sample positioning. An all-electrostatic two-lens column has been designed to focus the ion beam extracted from the source. Based on the Munro ion optics simulation, beam spot sizes as small as 100 nm can be achieved at beam energies between 5 to 35 keV if a 5 (micro)m-diameter extraction aperture is used. Smaller beam spot sizes can be obtained with smaller apertures at sacrifice of some beam current. The FEI 2LE column, which utilizes Schottky emission, electrostatic focusing optics, and stacked-disk column construction, can provide high-resolution (as small as 20 nm) imaging capability, with fairly long working distance (25 mm) at 25 keV beam voltage. Such an integrated FIB/SEM dual-beam system will not only improve the accuracy and reproducibility when performing ion beam sculpting and direct implantation processes, but will also enable researchers to perform cross-sectioning, imaging, and analysis with the same tool. A major advantage of this approach is the ability to produce a wide variety of ion species tailored to the application