Focused ion beams for microfabrication

by J. HI Daniel, D. F. Moore and J. F. Walker

Focused ion beam (FIB) techniques are commonly used in microelectronicsfor prototyping, fdilure analysis and pvocess control. With the growing interest in MEMS (micro-electro-mechanicalsystems) the importance of FIB techniques in thisfield has to be established. For the FIB to be consideredforproduction,the milling time is hw crucial. Using as an example thefabiication of a microaccelerometerstwcture the authors s o there is scopefor the FIB in the prototyping and production of micromechanical structures, leading to novel sensors.

n recent years micromachined devices and sensors, commonly described as MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems), have become a growing interest. Microfabricated accelerometers, gyroscopes and pressure sensors are already commercially available. In order to create new structures significant research is still being done in developing fabrication methods, the choice of which is often very dependent on the starting material used. Our focus in this paper is on silicon micromachining for sensor applications using silicon-on-insulator (SOI)4. Focused ion beams (FIBS)have proven to be very useful in microelectronics mainly because of their abhty to selectively remove and deposit material without the use of a patterned resist mask5. We have found applications for FIB d n g in the fabrication of MEMS with emphasis on the processing time and thus the economics o f the process. Microaccelerometer structures have been chosen as a field of study.

Focused ion beam technology

When an ion beam h t s a target, atoms are sputtered off, secondary electrons and ions are emitted, and primary ions are l implanted. Al these effects are used in FIB systems. The secondary electrons are used for high-contrast imaging as a scanning ion microscope (SIM). If the Fystem i5 equipped with a mass spectrometer the secondary ions can be collected for secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). Iinplantation changes

the electrical properties of materials and their etch behaviour. Probably most often an FIB is used to selectively remove material by sputtering. In shcon, removal rates around 0.25 pm3 nA- s-l are feasible. For higher etch rates, reactive gases like iodine can be added to the milling process, which is known as gas-assisted etch. Usually this is done through a gas injection needle close to the milling area in order to maintain a high local pressure. The reactive gases are adsorbed onto the target surface and may then form volatile products with the sputtered atoms. This increases the etch rate as redeposition of the sputtered product is avoided. With iodine addition the etch rate for shcon can be increased by a factor of about two. Furthermore, adding gases increases the etch selectivity between materials. By ion beam induced decomposition of an appropriate precursor gas, materials such as insulators or metals can be deposited~~. In our system, a platinum-based organo-metallic gas is used for metal deposition. Recent advances in gasassisted FIB etchmg have led to high etch rates for carbon-based materials such as photoresist or diamonds by using water vapour. FIB workstations are commercially available and are at a first glance rather similar to standard electron microscopes. The main difference is the ion column that generates the ion

beam. A gallium liquid metal ion

Fig. 1 integrated-circuit modification-a track has been cut and a connection made by a deposited metal strap

source is used due to its small emission area, its stability and operation almost at room temperature. Galhum is also
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Applications of FIBS
There is a wide range of applications for FIBs in nicroelectronics, material science, micromechanics and even biology-14. The most important areas are briefly described below:

chip repair./prototping: The main application field for FIBs lies in microelectronics. During the development of microchips an FIB is used as a 'surgical tool' to disconnect and reconnect metal lines (Fig. 1). This can be done until all the errors in the circuit have been eliminated and the design corrected. It is also possible to trim the values of components such as capacitors. failure annlysic/cross-sectioning: FIB systems are an invaluable tool for process control and failure analysis. They are used to analyse defects in circuits or study different process steps by cutting crosssections in a wafer and imaging it. TEiV sample prepamtion: Preparation of samples for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is essential for material and defect studies (Fig. 2). The basic task is to create a thin membrane (-100 nm thick) which highly energetic electrons can penetrate. micmstimctuves: For fabricating and trimming magnetic disc heads an FIB is used for its capability to cut line widths that are not achievable with conventional methods'. For this application FIB-systems have even become of interest as a production tool. Several approaches have been made to the use of FIBS for the fabrication of micromechanical structures. By ilvlling away material, small cantilevers or channel-like structures can be generated'. Micromechanical n d i n g tools and microprobes have been generated with FIBs'~.The fact that gallium implantation acts as an etch stop in silicon has been applied to the fabrication of small mechanical structure^'^. Deposition of small metal weights can act as fine-tuning of resonating structures"'. The size of most micromechanical structures is in the range of several tens to hundreds of microns, which is large by FIB standards. Thus the d n g or deposition times are potentially rather long. For prototyping this may be acceptable; however, for fabrication, short process times are essential.

Fig. 2 TEM sample preparation-an integrated circuit has been milled to leave a thin section for TEM analysis

Fig. 3 Schematic cross-section of the accelerometer structure in silicon-on-insulator material. The silicon proof mass is underetched in order to make it movable. A gallium focused ion beam cuts the readout gap at an oblique angle

good in ternis of sputtering yield for most of the materials used. Ion optics with electrostatic lenses deflect and focus the beam to ninimum rpot size. In the system used a 30 keV gallium ion beam is employed and currents between 1 pA and 12 nA can be selected. At 1 pA an ion beam spot size of 7 nm is achievable and thic becomes 0.5 pni at 12 iA. This corresponds to a current density of several amperes per square centinietre. Fully computer-controlled FIBsystems with pattern recognition for automated sample processing are on the market.
E

We looked for applications of FIBs within the field of MEMS, keeping the economics ofthe process in mind, and liavz chosen to study ail xccleration sciisor.

FIB milling for the fabrication of mechanical microsensors

Fig. 4 FIB image of a 3 pm thick single-crystal silicon accelerometer structure. The perforated silicon proof mass is suspended 4 pm above the substrate by two cantilevers. An oblique readout gap was etched by a focused ion beam. The bottom right shows an alignment cross for future use in automatic step-and-repeat FIB operations on arrays of devices

Microfabricated accelerometers are already commercially available and used for the triggering of airbags in cars. The sensing mechanism is usually based on capacitive or piezoresistive changes. For more sensitive applications, accelerometers that are based on quantum-mechanical tunnelling effects are
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Fig. 5 FIB cut of a silicon beam at 45 in order to create a readout gap for the accelerometer. The submicron gap was milled at 1000 pA in 100 s

Fig. 6 Accelerometer structure with proof mass that is held suspended by eight beams. By cutting the small silicon beams (position 1 and 2) the stiffness of the structure can be drastically changed

promisingi,h, though the processing is often rather complicated. Silicon microaccelerometers consist of a proof mass (seismic mass), a mechanical suspension and a readout mechanism. Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 illustrate our concept of an accelerometer structure. The starting inaterial is silicon-on-insulator material (3 pm of single-crystal silicon on a 4 pili thick Si02 layer). The proofniass and two supporting suspension beams are etched with anisotropic wet etch into the top silicon layer. Afterwards they are undercut with anisotropic silicon dioxide etch to become free-standing (4 p i above proof mass shown the substrate). The 220 x 220 mi2 in Fig. 4 has small square perforations to ensure an efficient underetch. An FIB is finally used to cut a narrow readout gap at an oblique angle into a small silicon beam which so far has fixed the proof mass in a third position (Fig. 3, Fig. 4). The sensing mechanism is intended to be based on electron tunnelling across the readout The acceleroimeter is sensitive to accelerations perpendicular to the plane of the proof mass.

The readout gap, which is shown in Fig. 5, has to be etched at an angle so that its width changes when the proof mass moves. The change of width is then monitored through the change of the tunnel current across the gap when a voltage is applied. This in turn is a measure of the acceleration. The gap must be narrow in order to keep the voltages low that are necessary to maintain a reasonable tunnel current.

Cutting of silicon beams

The unique advantage of FIB techniques is the possibility to etch narrow (submicron)trenches or gaps at an oblique angle without the need of a photolithographic mask (Fig. 5). Especially for micromechanical structures this is important as patterning of maslung layers is not possible after mechanical structures have been released (spinning on new photoresist will destroy the rather fragile structures). Table 1 compares FIB milling with other standard etching techniques. Although it is the slowest method it is the only one that can fulfil our requirements. In terms of the mllmg time for the readout gap

Table 1: Comparison between standard etching methods that are suitable for trench etching and FIB milling9-23

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various approaches can be taken. At high beam currents more material is removed in a shorter time, but the gap size also increases. When gas-assisted etch is applied a lower current can be chosen whde maintaining a fast etch rate. The best control ofthe gap width is achievable in a two step process. The silicon beam is first cut at a high current and then the final release made at a lower current24. For hgh-value sensors the FIB processing time is in an acceptable range considering that the overall process sequence is simple. We have found that FIB techniques can also be very useful during prototyping of microstructures. An FIB was employed to cut small suspension beams that made the structures stiffer during the wet processing, but which had to be removed for operation. The abhty to cut small beams can also be used to change the spring constant, and thus the resonance frequency, gradually. This is shown for the accelerometer structure in Fig. 6. Those cuts can be done relatively rapidly using high ion currents as the beams only have to be severed. The width of the milled gap is not crucial.

Conclusions
Besides the importance of FIBS for microelectronics there is scope for applications in microelectromechanical structures. We have shown that the ability of an FIB to cut narrow trenches at an oblique angle without the need of a resist mask is its strength. The combination with sihcon-on-insulator material allows the simple fabrication and prototyping of novel sensor structures.

Acknowledgment
The authors have appreciated collaboration and helpful discussions with N. Shibaike of Matsushta Research Institute Tokyo Uapan), T. JGriyama and S. Yoshimura Of Tokyo andJ. T. Whtney Of FE1 Europe Ltd.
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0IEE: 1997, 1998

J. H. Daniel and D. E Moore are with Cambridge University

Engineering Department, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1P2, UK. J. E Walker is with FEI Europe Ltd., Brookfield Business UK. Centre, Cottenham, Cambridge CB4 4PS,

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