SBIR/STTR Phase II: Gas-Cluster Ion Source for Mass Spectrometer and Microelectronic Applications

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This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will design, fabricate and test aprototype gas-cluster ion-beam (GCIB) sputtering tool for depth profiles withmonolayer-specific surface analysis of thin films. Applications will be to multilayerthin films of key importance in the microelectronics industries including semiconductors,metals in magnetic sensors, and dielectrics in photonic and micro-optical devices. Thesputtering tool is expected to meet aggressive performance specifications including depthresolution of less than 1 nm in conjunction with mass spectrometry. This GCIB tool willbe designed particularly for in-situ sputtering with surface-analytical instrumentsincluding the secondary-ion mass spectrometer (SIMS), the Auger electron spectrometer(AES) and the x-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). The overriding motivation is thecritical need in microelectronics for techniques to obtain accurate sputter depthmeasurements. The Phase-I effort demonstrated those GCIB methods with argon clusterssputter with near-atomic smoothness, high depth resolution and high secondary-ion yields.Minor instrumental design issues limited the cluster beam exposure uniformity and thisartificially limited the average depth resolution measured. Straightforward engineeringsolutions are well known and are expected to yield improvements in Phase II that willprovide depth resolution of well below 1 nm.The proposed technology will enable analysis of next-generation microelectronics deviceshaving much thinner films. Epion is the first and only to manufacture GCIB systems. Thetool to be prototyped will enable and have a wide applicability to many areas of theelectronic materials processing and manufacturing industry.