Structure of a Plasma Ion Source for a Cross-Section SEM Sample

This study researched the structure of the source of an ion milling machine used to fabricate a scanning electron microscope (SEM) sample. An ion source is used to mill out samples of over 1 mm dimension using a broad ion beam to generate plasma between the anode and cathode using a permanent magnet. To mill the sample in the vacuum chamber, the ion source should be greater than 6 kV for a positive ion current over $200{\mu}A$. To discover the optimum operating conditions for the ion miller, the diameter of the extractor, anode shape, and strength of the permanent magnet were varied in the experiments. A silicon wafer was used as the sample. The sputter yield was measured on the milled surface, which was analyzed using the SEM. The wafer was milled by injecting 1 sccm of argon gas into the 0.5 mTorr vacuum chamber.

SEM 단면 시료 제작을 위한 플라즈마 이온원의 구조