For the purpose of thin-layer surface analysis, comparison of laser ablation by 24 ns ArF laser pulses at 193 nm and that by 150 fs Ti:sapphire laser pulses at 780 nm for samples ranging from metals to semiconductors is reported. In contrast to nanosecond laser pulses, the ablation threshold for femtosecond laser pulses could be reduced significantly. In particular, the threshold for a Si sample was reduced to about one order of magnitude, and an ablation rate of 0.48 nm/shot was obtained at 5% above the threshold fluence. The root-mean-square (RMS) growth rate in the roughness of the ablated surface was 0.05 nm/shot. These results show the advantages of femtosecond laser ablation for trace element analysis of a wide range of materials, coupled with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy.

We fabricated a back-side illuminated (BSI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor in which a very-thin BSI photodiode array chip was stacked on a CMOS read-out circuit chip by compliant bumps. Cone-shaped bumps made of Au were prepared as the compliant bumps. The base diameter was 10–12 µm and the height was 9–10 µm. To fabricate the BSI CMOS image sensor, we developed a novel thin-chip assembly process. The key features of the process are as follows: preparation of a photodiode array wafer and a CMOS read-out circuit wafer, Au cone bump formation, bonding to support glass, thinning of the photodiode array wafer to 21 µm, through silicon via (TSV) formation using Cu electroplating, formation of back-side electrodes, transfer of the photodiode array wafer to a polymer support tape, dicing of the photodiode array wafer, separation of support tape, formation of Ni–Au bumps, dicing of CMOS read-out circuit wafer, and three-dimensional (3D) chip-stacking. The BSI CMOS image sensor thus fabricated has the following specifications: number of active pixels is 16,384 (128 ×128), photodiode size is approximately 18 µm square, photodiode pitch is 24 µm, and fill factor is approximately 55%. No defects were observed in the obtained image frames.

We newly introduce a compliant rim to realize hermetic sealing of electronic components at low temperature. The compliant rim easily deforms under pressing load owing to its cone-shaped cross section and, therefore, intermetallic bonding can be performed at low temperature. We demonstrate the room-temperature vacuum sealing using the compliant rim made of Au with the aid of ultrasonic vibration of submicron amplitude. A test vehicle fabricated using silicon and glass showed that the air leak rate of the room-temperature sealing was well below 1 × 10−12 Pa·m3/s, which is sufficiently low for use in vacuum packaging.

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The ethanolic solution of Rhodamine 6G is used for dye lasers in the atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS) system. However, the water solution is preferable from the standpoint of easy treatment and safety. In this paper, we systematically investigated the laser efficiency of a Rhodamine 6G dye laser pumped by a frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser, for various water-based solutions with surface-active agents and alcohols. By adding an appropriate amount of surface-active agent (Triton X or Emulgen) or alcohol (ethanol or propanol), we obtained almost the same level of laser efficiency as in the pure ethanolic solution. The improvement in the laser efficiency with these additives was attained by the deaggregation of nonradiative dimers. It was also confirmed that the water-based solution showed better performance against thermal distortion than the ethanolic solution, and was suitable for copper vapor laser (CVL) pumping.