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Removal of Contamination Deposits from Defects on Thin Film Magnetic Disks by Oxidative Cleaning Inside the SEM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Sharon Myers  and
Ronald Vane
Sharon Myers
Affiliation:
IBM Corporation, 5600 Cottle Rd, San Jose, CA95193
Ronald Vane
Affiliation:
XEI Scientific, 3124 Wessex Way, Redwood City, CA94061
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Extract

Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of thin film magnetic disk defects is challenging due to lubricant on the disk surface. The lubricant aids disk durability but interacts with the electron beam to form a contaminantation layer over the area of interest. A new cleaning technology allows the removal of the surface contamination while the specimen is in the SEM.

Plasma dry ashing of SEM samples to remove surface hydrocarbons is a well-known technique for specimen preparation. A number of commercial external plasma cleaning units are on the market for sample preparation outside the microscope. Zaluzec developed a technique for plasma cleaning the specimen and stage together prior to insertion into the analytical region of the electron microscope. But similar plasma cleaning within the SEM chamber must be avoided due to ion bombardment damage to the SEM and the deleterious effect of argon plasmas on ion pumps. XEI Scientific has developed a new device that creates neutral oxygen radicals from air. This technique oxidizes surface hydrocarbons into volatile gases that are easily carried away to the roughing and diffusion pumps.

Type
In-Situ Microscopy Techniques
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 5 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis '99, Microscopy Society of America 57th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 33rd Annual Meeting, Portland, Oregon August 1-5, 1999 , August 1999 , pp. 332 - 333
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

1.Thomas, R.S. and Hollahan, J.R., Proceedings of the Scanning Electron Microscopy Symposium 1974, IIT Research Institute, Chicago (1974), Part 1, 83.Google Scholar
2.Zaluzec, N. US Patent 5, 510, 624 issued April 23, 1996.Google Scholar