| AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Helium Ion Microscopy Focus Topic | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session HI+AS+BI+NS-WeM |
| Session: | Nano- and Bio- Imaging with Helium Ion Microscopy |
| Presenter: | Hongxuan Guo, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan |
| Authors: | H.X. Guo, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan H. Itoh, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Japan K. Onishi, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan T. Iwasaki, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan D. Fujita, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been used in the semiconductor surface imaging and metrology for more than 50 years. Now, a new tool, Helium ion microscope (HeIM), is developed and applied to this work. SEM and HeIM are the same in some fundamental characteristics. But, the latter has advantages in smaller probe size, higher resolution, and greater depth of field. These abilities enhance the performance of the HeIM in the semiconductor surface imaging and metrology, such as imaging of low–k materials [1] and measurement of critical dimension of the semiconductor devices [2].
A standard sample for scanning probe microscope tip characterization [3, 4] was measured by using HeIM and atomic force microscope (AFM) as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. Line profile of the HeIM image in Fig. 1 shows high accuracy in edge definition of the sample. The contrast of the image is related to morphology and materials of the sample [5], the probe size of the Helium ion beam, direction of the sample and beam, charge distribution, and so on. All the aspects will be analyzed in our presentation. The AFM image of the sample shown in Fig. 2 is a dilation of the real surface topography of the sample due to the finite-size AFM tip [6]. With an erosion algorithm, the surface of the sample was reconstructed to be compared with HeIM measurement.
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