Study on the method for the reliability test of focused ion beam

Abstract

We investigate the reliability of the focused ion beam (FIB) system with the designed evaluation patterns. The reliability test patterns are composed of three parts, which are the ion beam quality patterns, the ion beam scanning ability patterns and the stage system patterns. The designed patterns are fabricated with the commercial FIB system, and the common nanometer scale measurement systems, the atomic force microscopy and the scanning electron microscopy are used to evaluate the fabricated patterns. The measurement of the absolute length becomes important in the reliability test, and the measurement systems are calibrated with the standard patterns. The measurement results show the proposed patterns are suitable to measure the characteristics of FIB system and also other machines which can fabricate nanometer scale and high-aspect-ratio patterns. © Springer-Verlag 2007.