Application of Focused Ion Beam Micromachining: A Review

Abstract

Abstract. Fabrication of micro and nanoscale components are in high demand for various applications in diversified fields that include automotive, electronics, communication and medicine. Focused ion beam (FIB) machining is one of the techniques for microfabrication of micro devices. This paper presents a review of FIB machining technology that include its parameter, responses, its important component systems, as well as the fundamentals of imaging, milling (etching) and deposition techniques. The application of FIB in micromachining is also presented.

Development of a microstructured surface using the FIB

“…16 FIB machining is basically a direct writing technique in which a stream of highly focused ions are made incident on a substrate surface. [17][18][19] The incoming highly focused stream of ions have very large momentum, and by way of transferring its momentum to the substrate atoms, material removal is achieved. By controlling the focusing voltage and the aperture size, the diameter of the spot can be varied over a wide range.…”

Matrices pattern using FIB; ‘Out‐of‐the‐box’ way of thinking

“…Optical devices may be generally divided into two categories: single devices, such as an optical fibre (waveguide) (Bozhevolnyi, ; Califa, ) or logic circuits (Cohen, , ); and an array of closely spaced structures (large matrices of circles, bowties, and others) that serve as a plasmonic platform (Fu, , Salomon, ). Fabricating large matrices of nanostructures, including in plasmonics, poses multiple challenges – from maintaining high resolution over a large field of view (FOV; nanostructures that spread over hundreds microns) (Morrissey, ; Yao, ; Atiqah, ; Wilhelmi, ; Joshi‐Imre, ), through reproducibility and accuracy of hundreds of structures at a time (Tseng, ; Yvonne, ; Xu, , ), to system stability for extended writing. Similarly, the widely used FIB nanopatterning method also has limitations, including beam shift, FOV, beam stability over time, stage stability and accuracy, stitching abilities and accuracy, resolution of the different pattern files and file size.…”