Chapter 4 - Ion Beam Techniques and Applications

Abstract

Publisher Summary A wide variety of ion beam techniques are applicable in microelectronics. Many of these, however, are in early stages of development and may find commercial application only beyond very-large scale integration (VLSI) in ultra-large-scale integration (ULSI) fabrication. This chapter discusses the production of ion beams, sources and optics, ion beam equipment, and a wide range of applications, particularly some of the applications used currently. Ion beam applications exploit one or more of three basic aspects of ion-solid interactions. The desired effect of the ion beam may be produced by (1) the presence of the ion introduced into the solid, such as in implantation doping, (2) pseudoelastic collisions between energetic ions and the atoms of the solid where the momentum transfer results in displacements of the atoms, such as in physical sputtering or crystal damage, and (3) the inelastic scattering of the ions with electrons in the solid producing excitations that may induce chemical changes, such as in polymer resist exposure.