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

这个小企业创新研究第二阶段项目将设计，制造和测试原型气体团簇离子束（GCIB）溅射工具的深度剖面与薄膜的单层特定表面分析。应用将是在微电子工业中至关重要的多层薄膜，包括半导体，磁传感器中的金属，以及光子和微光学器件中的半导体。溅射工具预计将满足积极的性能规格，包括深度分辨率小于1纳米，结合质谱。该GCIB工具将专门设计用于原位溅射，表面分析仪器包括二次离子质谱仪（西姆斯），俄歇电子能谱仪（AES）和X射线光电子能谱仪（XPS）。最重要的动机是在微电子技术的关键需要，以获得准确的溅射深度测量。第一阶段的工作证明了氩团簇溅射的GCIB方法具有近原子的光滑性、高深度分辨率和高二次离子产额。简单的工程解决方案是众所周知的，预计将在第二阶段产生改进，将提供远低于1 nm的深度分辨率。拟议的技术将使下一代微电子器件具有更薄的薄膜分析。Epion是第一家也是唯一一家生产GCIB系统的公司。该工具将被原型化，并具有广泛的适用性，以许多领域的电子材料加工和制造业。

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.