Novel Plasma FIB/SEM for High Speed Failure Analysis and Real Time Imaging of Large Volume Removal

Abstract

The standard Ga focused ion beam (FIB) technology is facing challenges because of a request for large volume removal. This is true in the field of failure analysis. This article presents the first combined tool which can fulfill this requirement. This tool offers the combination of a high resolution scanning electron microscope (SEM) and a high current FIB with Xe plasma ion source. The article focuses on failure analysis examples and discusses the different steps of extra large cross sections (deposition of protective layer, rough milling, and polishing). Several applications of the novel Xe plasma FIB/SEM instrument are shown with respect to the failure analysis. The performance of the instrument is tested and discussed in comparison to gallium liquid metal ion source FIB systems. Results show that the Xe plasma FIB offers much higher milling rate, greatly reducing the time necessary for many failure analysis tasks.

A review of focused ion beam applications in optical fibers

“…It is worth noting that some other liquid metal alloy ion sources with lower melting point such as PdAs, PdAsB, AuSi, AuSiB, NiB, and NiAs, have also been studied recently [48,49]. On top of metal ion sources, plasma sources, which are still in a developing stage, have also been used in FIB instruments to boost the material sputtering rate with the respect to a conventional Ga + FIB using higher beam currents (μA) [50][51][52]. However, high currents result in large spot sizes, and thus lower spatial resolution.…”

A New Generation Plasma FIB Column with Higher Probe Current and Improved Imaging Resolution

“…Tomáš Hrnčíř 1 , Dušan Nešpor 1 , Zsolt Radi 1 , Jaroslav Jiruše 1 , Lukáš Hladík 2 , Olivier Salord 3 and Anne Delobbe 3 1 TESCAN Brno s.r.o, Brno, Jihomoravsky kraj, Czech Republic, 2 TESCAN ORSAY HOLDING, a.s., Brno, Jihomoravsky kraj, Czech Republic, 3 Orsay Physics, Fuveau, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France During past several years, plasma FIB has been established as a routine technique in semiconductor failure analysis and materials science. It offers a wide range of FIB applications like creating big and artefactfree cross sections [1][2][3], TEM sample preparation [4], 3D tomography [5,6], integrated circuit delayering [7] and sample preparation for X-ray tomography [8]. However, there are still some limitations of the technique.…”

“…However, there are still some limitations of the technique. When compared to Ga FIB, plasma FIB offers significantly faster milling, but its spot size is bigger [1]. This causes worsening of the cross-section quality.…”

High-Resolution 3D Reconstruction of Human Oocytes Using Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscopy

“…Recently, FIB-SEM with xenon (Xe) plasma ion source gained popularity for its ability to achieve high ion currents (≤ 3 μA) capable of large-scale milling tasks. The higher ablation rate offered by Xe FIB makes imaging of large volumes more time-efficient ( Hrnčíř et al, 2012 ).…”