Enhanced focused ion beam milling with use of nested raster patterns

Abstract

The focused ion beam (FIB) instrument is designed to provide the removal of material with nanometer-scale precision. However, one often needs to remove a substantial amount of material to expose the region of interest or prepare a specimen for transmission electron microscopy analysis. The maximum current available on Ga+ FIB sources is less than 100 nA, and this is a limiting factor when removal on the millimeter scale is desired. Any improvement in the removal rate reduces the analysis time and increases the range of samples that can be analyzed. Optimization of ion beam parameters, such as dwell time and overlap, can improve material removal and reduce redeposition. Since sputtering occurs faster at an edge, the use of a nested arrangement of raster patterns to more frequently present an edge to the ion beam was able to improve the removal of material at the region of interest by over 30% in the silicon and polycrystalline copper substrates used for this study. A confocal laser scanning microscope made possible an accurate determination of the material removed.