Thermo Fisher Scientific

FIB sample preparation

The new Thermo Scientific Helios 5 DualBeam builds on the high-performance imaging and analysis capabilities of the industry-leading Helios DualBeam family. It is carefully designed to meet the needs of materials science researchers and engineers for a wide range of focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) use cases – even on the most challenging samples. 

The Helios 5 DualBeam redefines the standard in high-resolution imaging with high materials contrast; fast, easy, and precise high-quality sample preparation for (S)TEM imaging and atom probe tomography (APT) as well as the high-quality subsurface and 3D characterization. Building on the proven capabilities of the Helios DualBeam family, additional advancements to the new Helios 5 DualBeam were designed to ensure the system is optimized for a variety of manual or automated workflows. Those improvements include:

• Greater ease-of-use: The Helios 5 DualBeam is the most accessible DualBeam for users of all experience levels. Operator training may be reduced from months to days and the system design is helping all operators to achieve consistent, repeatable results on a wide variety of advanced applications. 
• Increased productivity: Advanced automation capabilities, increased robustness and stability enhancements in the Helios 5 DualBeam and Thermo Scientific AutoTEM 5 software can significantly increase the sample preparation throughput by allowing unattended and even overnight operation. 
• Improved time to results: The Helios 5 DualBeam now includes FLASH, a new concept of tuning the image. With conventional microscopes, each time an operator needs to acquire an image, the microscope has to be carefully tuned by iterative alignments. With the Helios 5 DualBeam, a simple gesture across the screen will activate FLASH, which automatically adjusts these parameters. The automatic adjustments can significantly improve throughput, data quality, and simplify the acquisition of high-quality images.

TEM sample preparation

The Thermo Scientific Helios 5 DualBeam is part of the fifth generation of the industry-leading Helios DualBeam family. It is carefully designed to meet the needs of scientists and engineers, combining the innovative Elstar electron column for extreme high-resolution imaging and the high materials contrast with the superior Thermo Scientific Tomahawk Ion Column for the fast, easy, and precise high-quality sample preparation. In addition to the advanced electron and ion optics, the Helios 5 DualBeam incorporates a suite of state of-the-art technologies that enables simple and consistent high-resolution (S)TEM and atom probe tomography (APT) sample preparation, as well as the high-quality subsurface and 3D characterization, even on the most challenging samples.

The Thermo Scientific Helios 5 PXL Wafer DualBeam is a plasma focused ion beam scanning electron microscope (PFIB SEM) that redefines the standard for high-aspect-ratio through-stack metrology and structural verification. It features high-performance in-line metrology and process monitoring to quickly provide critical insights for process development and manufacturing engineers.

Designed to meet the in-line metrology and process control requirements of the fab, the Helios 5 PXL Wafer DualBeam significantly reduces time to data and enables the wafer to be returned to the line without being pulled and scrapped.

The Helios 5 PXL Wafer DualBeam is compatible with semiconductor factory automation, facilitating operator-free recipe-driven operations. This automation can support the high-throughput requirements of fab metrology and process monitoring – even on the most challenging structures.

Advanced logic and memory manufacturing processes are becoming more reliant on fast turnaround of precise structural and analytical data to be able to quickly calibrate tool sets, diagnose yield excursions, and optimize process yields. At technology nodes below 28nm, especially in cases where 3D and advanced device designs are being implemented, conventional SEM or optical-based analysis and inspection tools run into challenges that limit their ability to provide robust and reliable data. The Thermo Scientific Metrios AX transmission electron microscope (TEM) is the first TEM dedicated to providing the fast, precise characterization and reference metrology that semiconductor manufacturers need to develop and control their wafer fabrication processes in order to accelerate profitable yield.

High-volume TEM data, accurate and repeatable

The Metrios AX TEM automates the basic TEM operation and measurement procedures, minimizing the requirements for specialized operator training. Its advanced automated metrology routines deliver significantly greater precision than manual methods. The Metrios AX TEM is designed to provide improved throughput and lower cost-per-sample than other TEMs.

To truly optimize S/TEM imaging, EDX and EELS may require acquisition of different signals at different accelerating voltages. The rules may vary from sample to sample but, it is generally accepted that: 1) the best imaging is done at the highest possible accelerating voltage above which visible damage will occur, 2) EDX, especially when mapping, benefits from lower voltages with increased ionization cross-sections, thus yielding better signal-to-noise ratio maps for a given total dose, and 3) EELS works best at high voltages to avoid multiple scattering, which degrades the EELS signal with increasing sample thickness.

Unfortunately, acquisition at different accelerating voltages on the same sample without losing the region of interest—all during a single microscopy session—is not possible. At least, until now.

Imagine a Thermo Scientific Spectra 300 S/TEM:

• That can truly be operated at different voltages (all the voltages between 30 and 300 kV for which alignments were purchased) in a single microscopy session
• Where changing from an accelerating voltage to any other one takes about 5 minutes
• That can accommodate a radically different EDX concept with a 4.45 srad solid angle (4.04 srad solid angle with an analytical double tilt holder)

With the new Spectra Ultra S/TEM, the accelerating voltage becomes an adjustable parameter, just like probe current, and the massive Ultra-X EDX system enables chemical characterization of materials too beam-sensitive for conventional EDX analysis.

The Spectra Ultra aberration-corrected S/TEM offers an industry leading level of characterization capabilities for materials science and semiconductor applications at the highest resolution on a wide variety of samples.

Built on an ultra-stable foundation

The Spectra Ultra S/TEM is delivered on a platform designed to offer an unprecedented level of mechanical stability quality through passive and (optional) active vibration isolation.

Like the Thermo Scientific Spectra 200 S/TEM and Spectra 300 S/TEM, the system is housed in a fully redesigned enclosure with a built-in on-screen display for convenient specimen loading and removal. For the first time, full modularity and upgradeability can be offered between uncorrected and single-corrected configurations with variable heights, allowing maximum flexibility for different room configurations.

The Thermo Scientific nProber IV System is a high-performance scanning-electron-microscopy-based platform for the localization of transistor and metallization faults. It is our most advanced nanoprobing system to date, and the first to use the high-resolution LEEN2 SEM Column. The nProber IV System is specifically designed to increase the speed, accuracy, and output of your failure analysis (FA) workflow, where productivity is paramount.

The nProber IV System directly increases the success rate of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis through precise fault localization and has proven to be both accurate and repeatable on even the most challenging process nodes. The automation and guided workflows of the nProber IV System improve lab productivity and allow your organization to focus on the output of your nanoprobing and TEM workflows while investing less in the operation of the system itself, thereby accelerating time-to-yield.

Improved process yield ramp with the nProber IV System

Time to yield is a significant focus for semiconductor fabs. The key to faster time to yield is the efficient identification of critical defects during process and device development. Nanoprobing plays a vital role in process yield ramp, localizing faults that cannot be found with other failure analysis techniques. Nanoprobing also delivers the precise localization required to ensure that the thin TEM samples will fully contain the fault, greatly improving the success rate of your TEM workflow. Finally, as nanoprobing localizes faults through accurate electrical characterization, TEM workflows that utilize nanoprobing combine TEM physical failure analysis with electrical fault signatures, helping to correlate process control improvements with device performance.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is the leader in supplying TEM workflows for process and device yield ramp, with widely adopted solutions for nanoprobing sample preparation, nanoprobing, TEM sample preparation and TEM physical failure analysis.