AVS 51st International Symposium
    Thin Films Tuesday Sessions
       Session TF+NS-TuA

Invited Paper TF+NS-TuA5
Electron Beam Micromachining

Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 2:40 pm, Room 303C

Session: Focused Beam Processing & Fabrication
Presenter: P.E. Russell, NC State University
Authors: P.E. Russell, NC State University
D.P. Griffis, NC State University
A. Garetto, NC State University
Correspondent: Click to Email
While chemically enhanced focused ion beam micromachining (CE-FIBM) or other ion based micromachining techniques have many practical applications, any ion beam based micromachining technique typically results in some degree of sample damage as well as residual implanted ions. In many cases, these implanted ions cause deleterious effects such as staining in the case of mask repair, alteration of the electrical characteristics of semiconductor and optoelectronic samples and/or surface damage in samples prepared for high resolution electron microscopy or microanalysis. In order to avoid ion staining and following up on our earlier efforts in electron beam induced deposition and material removal, our efforts are currently focused on gaining increased understanding of and development of chemically enhanced electron beam micromachining (CE-EBM) of technologically important materials. The interaction of incident and emitted (secondary and backscattered) electrons with surfaces in the presence of a suitable chemical precursor can induce useful chemical reactions. Electron beam energies from a few hundred eV to 30 keV are routinely available on scanning electron microscopes, and a few systems allow much lower beam energy. The magnitude of the emission of secondary electrons peaks in the range of a few eV to tens of eV's while backscattered electrons are emitted over a broad, albeit higher range of energies up to the full primary energy. This wide range of electron energies coupled with the richness of possible beam/sample/precursor interactions makes available a wide range of possibilities for both deposition and etching with, when compared to damage resulting from ion beam exposure, a dramatically reduced probability of damage and/or unintentional alteration of samples. This talk will review recent developments in both the application and understanding of CE-EBM.