AVS 46th International Symposium
    Applied Surface Science Division Tuesday Sessions
       Session AS-TuM

Paper AS-TuM8
Focused Ion Beam Micromachining of Thin Film Copper

Tuesday, October 26, 1999, 10:40 am, Room 6A

Session: Ion Beam Analysis and Depth Profiling
Presenter: J. Phillips, North Carolina State University
Authors: J. Phillips, North Carolina State University
D. Griffis, North Carolina State University
P.E. Russell, North Carolina State University
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The focused ion beam (FIB) sputtering behavior of thin film copper has been investigated as a function of tilt and rotation of the sample with respect to the incident ion beam. Thin film and single crystal copper was used for this study. The thin film samples were deposited by vapor deposition and shown by x-ray diffraction to be textured <111>. A significant sputter rate increase was observed when milling <111> textured copper at 12 degrees tilt, regardless of sample rotation. In an effort to understand the origin of this sputter rate enhancement, the orientation dependence of single crystal copper (111) was examined. Rotating the sample about [111] with various tilt increments (0-28 degrees in 4 degree steps) demonstrated that channeling effects were responsible for the increased sputter rate, as has been observed.@footnote 1@ In an effort to correlate the single crystal results with the thin film observations, (111) single crystal data was averaged over all rotations to give an overall material removal rate for each sample tilt. Data averaged in this manner directly correlates, within experimental error, with the thin film data suggesting that the crystallinity of the thin film copper is responsible for the observed sputter rate variation. Thus the FIB material removal rate of <111> copper films can be increased by up to 30% by tilting the sample 12 degrees with respect to the ion beam axis. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@R. Behrisch, Sputtering by Particle Bombardment I, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1981, pp. 260, 300, 301.