Development of a Local Electrode Atom Probe

9703932凯利该奖项为一项开发项目提供部分支持，该项目旨在建造和测试一种新的分析仪器，即本地电极原子探头(LEAP)。这种仪器将使用施加在表面上的非常高的电场来蒸发原子，并将它们加速走向成像探测器。原子类型由每个原子的飞行时间质谱学确定。然后，从数据中重建由原子位置和身份组成的三维图像。与以前的这种类型的仪器不同，LEAP将有能力从平面样本中获得这些图像。它还将能够比以前的仪器更快地记录数据数量级。这种更快的速度和平面样本几何结构将使LEAP技术能够解决以前无法解决的新问题。预计这一飞跃将能够完成许多以前使用二次离子质谱仪(SIMS)所完成的工作，并将以原子尺度的空间分辨率完成这些工作。这种显微镜的样品几何形状使得从过去被禁止的所有类别的材料中制造和分析样品是现实的。半导体、绝缘体、平面衬底上的薄膜结构，甚至微电子设备都是例子。这个项目特别针对微电子行业中的几个棘手问题，因为它们具有技术和经济意义，而且它们将成为该技术力量的主要例证。成功分析这些材料问题是本项目的目标。这些能力的结合将在材料表征方面产生技术突破。***

9703932 Kelly This award provides partial support for a development program to build and test an new analytical instrument, a local electrode atom probe (LEAP). This instrument will use very high electric fields applied to a surface to field evaporate atoms and accelerate them toward an imaging detector. The atom type is determined by time-of-flight mass spectrometry for each atom. A three-dimensional image which is made up of the atom positions and identities is then reconstructed from the data. Unlike prior instruments of this genre, the LEAP will have the capability to obtain these images from planar samples. It will also be able to record the data orders of magnitude faster than previous instruments. This higher speed and planar specimen geometry will make the LEAP technique able to tackle new problems which have previously been out of reach. It is expected that this LEAP will be able to do many of the jobs that previously would have been done with a secondary ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) and it will do them with atomic-scale spatial resolution. The specimen geometry for this microscope is such that it is realistic to fabricate and analyze specimens from whole classes of materials which have been off-limits in the past. Semiconductors, insulators, thin film structures on planar substrates, and even microelectronic devices are examples. A couple of intractable problems in the microelectronics industry are specifically targeted in this project because of their technological and economic significance and because they will serve as prime illustrations of the power of the technique. Successful analysis of these materials problems is a goal of this program. The combination of these capabilities will produce a technological breakthrough in materials characterization. ***