| AVS 64th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| Advanced Ion Microscopy Focus Topic | Thursday Sessions |
| Session HI+NS+TR-ThA |
| Session: | Novel Beam Induced Surface Analysis and Nano-Patterning |
| Presenter: | Kyle Mahady, University of Tennessee |
| Authors: | K. Mahady, University of Tennessee P.D. Rack, University of Tennessee S. Tan, Intel Corporation Y. Greenzweig, Intel Corporation, Israel R.H. Livengood, Intel Corporation A. Raveh, Intel Corporation, Israel |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
We present a simulation study of focused ion beam etching using a gas assist. The use of a precursor gas greatly enhances material removal rate when compared to ion beam sputtering, enabling features such as valleys to be etched with lower ion doses, and consequently less damage to the substrate. The basis of our study is a Monte Carlo based code for focused ion beam milling, which simulates the cumulative removal of material due to sputtering, and secondary electron emission, for various target compositions and structures. In this talk, we describe the gas assisted etching portion of the code, which simulates monolayer adsorption of XeF2 to a SiO2 substrate, and the reactions between adsorbed gas and surface atoms which lead to volatilization and material removal. We study the effect of etching parameters such as beam current and gas flux on the shape of etched valleys, and the influence of ion species such as Ne+ and Ga+, to characterize the underlying limitations on etching resolution. Simulations are compared against experimental results, for validation and to understand experimentally observed features.