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A New ion Beam Based Etching/Coating System for Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Light Microscopy (LM)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

R. Alani ,
R.J. Mitro ,
C.M. Tabatt  and
L. Malaszewski
R. Alani
Affiliation:
Gatan R&D, 6678 Owens Drive, Pleasanton, CA, 94588, USA.
R.J. Mitro
Affiliation:
Gatan R&D, 6678 Owens Drive, Pleasanton, CA, 94588, USA.
C.M. Tabatt
Affiliation:
Gatan R&D, 6678 Owens Drive, Pleasanton, CA, 94588, USA.
L. Malaszewski
Affiliation:
Gatan R&D, 6678 Owens Drive, Pleasanton, CA, 94588, USA.
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Extract

The design and performance of a new instrument, based on improved Penning ion guns [1] for etching and coating samples for SEM and LM in a single vacuum chamber, are described. The instrument is based on an existing high resolution ion beam coating system, which is capable of producing high quality ultra-thin and amorphous conductive films, required for present high resolution electron microscopes. [2]. The fact that in this system both etching and coating processes are combined in one chamber, the specimen handling and specimen contamination are minimized. Furthermore, the system eliminates the traditional multiple mounting /dismounting of samples to various holders for mechanical polishing, etching, coating and microscopy purposes. The specimen can stay with the same holder throughout the entire process, increasing the sample through-put. Moreover, the system offers an alternative method to the traditional “wet chemical etching,” technique with its well known problems.

Type
Technologists’ Forum: Special Topics and Symposium
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 3 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '97, Microscopy Society of America 55th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 31st Annual Meeting, Histochemical Society 48th Annual Meeting, Cleveland, Ohio, August 10-14, 1997 , August 1997 , pp. 363 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 1997

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References

Alani, R. and Swann, P. R., MRS symposium Proceedings Vol. 254, (1992), p.4310.1557/PROC-254-43CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alani, R. and Swann, P. R., Proceedings of SCANNING 93 (1993), III-41 to III-42Google Scholar