SBIR Phase I: Low Temperature Ion Source for High-Brightness Focused Ion Beams

SBIR 第一阶段：用于高亮度聚焦离子束的低温离子源

• 批准号: 1248521
• 负责人: Brenton Knuffman
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: zeroK NanoTech Corporation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1248521&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Low; Temperature; Ion

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will investigate the commercial feasibility of low-temperature ion source (LoTIS) technology which uses laser-cooling to create a beam of Cs+ ions with high brightness and low energy spread. This technology could extend the utility of focused ion beam (FIB) instrumentation that is widely used for nanometer-scale precision machining tasks by addressing shortcomings in precision and speed afforded by commercially available ion source technology. The research aims of this project are the characterization of key ion source performance metrics - brightness and energy spread - of this technology, in order to compare it to incumbent ion source technologies in important application segments. Relative to the industry standard liquid metal ion source, this technology could provide an estimated tenfold to hundredfold increase in brightness and a fivefold reduction in energy spread. These improved ion source characteristics would enable superior machining precision at higher speeds over a broader range of ion beam operating energies. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is to develop improved FIB instrumentation to enable users in a variety of research fields and industrial applications, including nanotechnology, biotechnology, semiconductor manufacturing, and energy exploration. In particular, nanomachining applications, including integrated circuit edit and rapid prototyping of nanoscale device structures, are increasingly limited by the precision afforded by the current ion source technology, and the users in these areas are in need of higher-precision FIB solutions. FIBs employed for transmission electron microscope lamellae preparation require less precision but could benefit from reduced subsurface ion damage provided by LoTIS, through the use of Cs+ ions at low energy. A bright source of Cs+ ions could also dramatically improve the resolution and throughput for spatially-resolved elemental mapping in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) applications. This technique represents an order-of-magnitude ion source performance improvement that will address FIB user needs across a wide spectrum of scientific and commercial applications.

该小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将研究低温离子源（LoTIS）技术的商业可行性，该技术使用激光冷却来产生具有高亮度和低能量扩散的Cs+离子束。 这项技术可以扩展聚焦离子束（FIB）仪器的效用，广泛用于纳米级精密加工任务，通过解决市售离子源技术提供的精度和速度的缺点。 该项目的研究目标是表征该技术的关键离子源性能指标-亮度和能量扩散，以便将其与重要应用领域的现有离子源技术进行比较。相对于工业标准的液态金属离子源，该技术可以提供估计十倍至百倍的亮度增加和五倍的能量扩散减少。这些改进的离子源特性将在更宽的离子束操作能量范围内以更高的速度实现上级加工精度。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发改进的FIB仪器，使用户能够在各种研究领域和工业应用，包括纳米技术，生物技术，半导体制造和能源勘探。 特别是，纳米加工应用，包括集成电路编辑和纳米级器件结构的快速原型制作，越来越受到当前离子源技术提供的精度的限制，这些领域的用户需要更高精度的FIB解决方案。 用于透射电子显微镜薄片制备的FIB需要较低的精度，但可以受益于通过使用低能量的Cs+离子由LoTIS提供的减少的亚表面离子损伤。 明亮的Cs+离子源还可以显著提高二次离子质谱（西姆斯）应用中空间分辨元素映射的分辨率和通量。这种技术代表了一个数量级的离子源性能的改进，将解决FIB用户的需求，在广泛的科学和商业应用。