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

Epion Corporation, Billerica MA

Investigators

Abstract

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will design, fabricate and test a prototype gas-cluster ion-beam (GCIB) sputtering tool for depth profiles with monolayer-specific surface analysis of thin films. Applications will be to multilayer thin films of key importance in the microelectronics industries including semiconductors, metals in magnetic sensors, and dielectrics in photonic and micro-optical devices. The sputtering tool is expected to meet aggressive performance specifications including depth resolution of less than 1 nm in conjunction with mass spectrometry. This GCIB tool will be designed particularly for in-situ sputtering with surface-analytical instruments including the secondary-ion mass spectrometer (SIMS), the Auger electron spectrometer (AES) and the x-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). The overriding motivation is the critical need in microelectronics for techniques to obtain accurate sputter depth measurements. The Phase-I effort demonstrated those GCIB methods with argon clusters sputter with near-atomic smoothness, high depth resolution and high secondary-ion yields. Minor instrumental design issues limited the cluster beam exposure uniformity and this artificially limited the average depth resolution measured. Straightforward engineering solutions are well known and are expected to yield improvements in Phase II that will provide depth resolution of well below 1 nm. The proposed technology will enable analysis of next-generation microelectronics devices having much thinner films. Epion is the first and only to manufacture GCIB systems. The tool to be prototyped will enable and have a wide applicability to many areas of the electronic materials processing and manufacturing industry.