Abstract

Focused Ion Beam (FIB) systems can be used to repair photomasks by accurately depositing and/or removing absorber material at the nanometer-scale. These repairs are enabled or enhanced by process gases delivered to the area of ion beam impact on the sample. To optimize gas delivery, three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models of selected gas delivery systems for FIB tools have been developed. The models were verified through an experiment in which water vapor was dispensed onto a cryogenically-cooled substrate. Water vapor hitting the sample surface immediately freezes. The height of the deposited ice on the sample surface is proportional to the product of the local gas flux and the exposure time. The gas flux predicted by the CFD model was found to be in good agreement with the experimental measurement. The CFD models were used to predict the mass flux of process gas and the pressure distribution at the sample surface for various gas delivery system designs. The mass flux and pressure relate directly to the amount of reactants that are available for the FIB repair processes. Parametric studies of key gas dispense system geometric parameters are presented and used to optimize the gas dispense system geometry.

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