S. Lipp et al., LOCAL MATERIAL REMOVAL BY FOCUSED ION-BEAM MILLING AND ETCHING, Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section B, Beam interactions with materials and atoms, 106(1-4), 1995, pp. 630-635
Focused ion beams (FIB) have drawn considerable interest as a tool for
micromachining in the sub-micrometer regime with major applications i
n failure analysis and circuit repair. With shrinking dimensions, the
demands on the precision of FIB-machining are increasing. Tn this pape
r, focused ion beam enhanced etching of silicon has been investigated
using iodine as an etchant which leads to an increase in the material
removal rate of silicon by a factor of up to 30 compared to sputter er
osion. The influence of current density, dwell time, and loop time on
the removal rate will be discussed and compared to model calculations.
By secondary electron microscopy, the maximum slope of the generated
structures has been determined. Finally, the application of this techn
ique to the formation of thin lamellas for TEM inspection will be show
n.