The 15th European Microscopy Congress

Manchester Central, United Kingdom

16th - 21st September 2012

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ORION NanoFab: Extending nanofabrication to the sub-10nm scale

Precise and controlled machining combined with rapid prototyping using a combination of helium, neon and gallium ion beams

Charged particle beams offer the greatest flexibility and the highest throughput for prototyping customized devices for research and development. Traditional approaches utilize a gallium focused ion beam or electron beams to machine materials through sputtering, depositing/etching metals and insulators, and to expose resist for direct write lithography. While the gallium ion beam is ideal for rapid material removal, the smallest features that can be machined by gallium ion beam are about 30 nm in size. In addition, gallium is a conductor which affects the quality of deposited metals and insulators. Electron beam lithography is routinely used to expose resist and to fabricate structures. However, the technique is limited by proximity effect for dense patterns at the sub-10nm scale.

Ion microscopy with helium or neonbeams created from a gas field ion source (GFIS) shows great potential and flexibility for many imaging and nanofabrication applications. With helium or neon beams, sub-10 nm structures can be routinely fabricated even in very sensitive materials such as graphene. Due to the inert nature of helium and neon, the conductivity of deposited metals and insulators is not altered. Helium and neon beam lithography does not exhibit proximity effects and dense features can be made with high throughput. With capabilities that span the application areas of both electron and traditional gallium focused ion beam microscopy, the beam-sample interaction dynamics of  helium/neon ion beams offer unique contrast and stunning surface detail at sub 0.5nm lateral resolution. Thus it extends direct write fabrication and inspection into the sub-10 nm regime.

The ORION Plus Helium Ion Microscope (HIM) from Carl Zeiss has been commercially available for five years. A number of preeminent academic, government and industrial research institutions have adopted this technology. Helium ion microscopy has also become a mainstream technique, demonstrated by over 100 publications in key journals and dedicated sessions at major conferences such as Microscopy and Microanalysis (M&M), AVS, and Electron, Ion, and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication (EIPBN). With the launch of the ORION NanoFab, Carl Zeiss is excited to announce the extension of capability and performance of this unique instrument. The development of the GFIS into a system capable of running both helium and neon beams has transformed the HIM into a single column – dual beam tool.The neon ion beam extends the machining and nanofabrication capabilities of the instrument with greater sputter yields and faster resist exposure. Combined with the imaging capabilities of helium, this platform offers the highest resolution in imaging and machining found on any multibeam system. The addition of a state-of-the-art gallium focused ion beam column makes the ORION NanoFab the most versatile nanofabrication platform in the world.


From solid state nanopores to direct write lithography

A wide range of applications can now be easily addressed with ORION NanoFab. Helium and neon beams have been used to create solid state nanopores for DNA sequencing devices. Holes down to 3 nm in diameter with aspect ratios greater than 10:1 have been created in a variety of materials. The process takes only few seconds, is repeatable and scalable. Initial detection of DNA translocation events has been demonstrated. Plasmonic devices with nearly vertical sidewalls have been patterned in films by this instrument, demonstrating machining precision of better than 5 nm. Dislocation damage to surrounding structural elements is greatly reduced compared to gallium FIB, thus allowing work on delicate and sensitive membranous materials. Performance characterization of such devices has shown no impact on device performance when made using helium and neon ion beams. Direct write lithography with helium and neon using commercial resists HSQ and PMMA resulted in line features as narrow as 4 nm. Additionally, there is no proximity effect compared to electron beam exposure, meaning that dense and sparse patterns develop identically without having to use any proximity effect correction methods. The resist sensitivity is an order of magnitude higher for helium exposure than electrons and increases even further with neon exposure. Finally, the use of helium and neon ions beams for circuit edit applications is being developed. Deposition of conducting and insulating materials creates features smaller than those obtained with gallium FIB, with no proximity effects observed. Neon induced beam chemistry is being developed for low resistivity metal deposition and also via formation by ion milling.


Helium + Neon
ET
Detector
Ga
Sample

The key product attributes can be summarized as follows:

1. Nanofabrication on a sub-10nm scale.

2. High-resolution imaging with a probe size <0.5nm.

3. Precise machining with He/Ne beams and rapid prototyping with Ga beam – only platform to offer unique combination of ion beams.


Join us at the Carl Zeiss booth at EMC 2012 in Manchester to learn more about this exciting new technology.

Solid State Nanopores   |  Plasmonics  |    Lithography |   Circuit Analysis |  Graphene Patterning