• Applied Microscopy
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.189-194
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• 2015

Backside Ar ion milling technique for the preparation of cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) specimens, and backside-ion milling combined with focused ion beam (FIB) operation for electron holography were introduced in this paper. The backside Ar ion milling technique offers advantages in preparing cross-sectional specimens having thin, smooth and uniform surfaces with low surface damages. The back-side ion milling combined with the FIB technique could be used to observe the two-dimensional p-n junction profiles in semiconductors with the sample quality sufficient for an electron holography study. These techniques have useful applications for accurate TEM analysis of the microstructure of materials or electronic devices such as arrayed hole patterns, three-dimensional integrated circuits, and also relatively thick layers (> $1{\mu}m$).

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.129-133
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• 2007

Focused Ion Beam(FIB) systems is a useful tool for the fabrication of micro-nano scale structures. In this study, the effects of FIB etching on the Au microstructure are systematically investigated. As the fabrication parameters, ion dose, dwell time and beam overlap ratio are studied. First, the increases of Ga ion dose makes the milling yield higher and the sidewall of milling profile steeper. Dwell time is found to have little effects on the milling profile due to the relatively large milling area of $1\times1{\mu}m^2$ used in this study. However, beam overlap significantly affects not only milling rate but also milling profile. As the beam overlap ratio changes from positive to negative, the development of regular cross-stripe patterns at the bottom with low milling rate is observed.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.23-25
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• 2000

We have investigated the effects of Ar and$O_2$-ion milling on the exchange coupling field ($H_{ex}$) and coercive field ($H_c$) at the interfaces between substrates and NiO/NiFe films, to understand the exchange biasing mechanism. The $O_2$-ion milling was successfully performed by means of the electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) process. We found that the local roughness gradient of the NiO surface increased by $O_2$-ion milling. The ratio of $H_{ex}/H_c$ increased from 0.87 to 1.77, whereas $H_c$ decreased by almost a half as a results of the ion milling. The decrease in $H_c$could be interpreted as due to the refinement of magnetic domain size, which arose from the increase of the local roughness gradient of the NiO surface. The decrease in low $H_c$, and increase in $H_{ex}$ in NiO spin valves by ECR-ion milling are in the right direction far use in magnetoresistance (MR) heads.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.785-786
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• 2011

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.95-102
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• 2004

The TEM samples prepared by ion milling have the advantage that thin area can be obtained from almost any materials. However, it has the disadvantage that the amount of thin area can often be quite limited. For the cross-sectioned samples and grossly heterogeneous materials, the thickness of less than $0.1{\mu}m$ can be achieved by mechanical grinding and polishing (tripod polisher) and then the TEM samples may be ion-milled for final thinning or cleaning. These approaches were described in this paper. Examples of TEM observations were taken from cross-section samples of thin films on silicon and sapphire, from diffusion layers between $Mo_5Si_3\;and\;Mo_2B$, and from rapidly solidified 304 stainless steel powders embedded in electroplated copper.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.50
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• pp.22.1-22.6
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• 2020

In-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) holders that employ a chip-type specimen stage have been widely utilized in recent years. The specimen on the microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based chip is commonly prepared by focused ion beam (FIB) milling and ex-situ lift-out (EXLO). However, the FIB-milled thin-foil specimens are inevitably contaminated with Ga⁺ ions. When these specimens are heated for real time observation, the Ga⁺ ions influence the reaction or aggregate in the protection layer. An effective method of removing the Ga residue by Ar⁺ ion milling within FIB system was explored in this study. However, the Ga residue remained in the thin-foil specimen that was extracted by EXLO from the trench after the conduct of Ar⁺ ion milling. To address this drawback, the thin-foil specimen was attached to an FIB lift-out grid, subjected to Ar⁺ ion milling, and subsequently transferred to an MEMS-based chip by EXLO. The removal of the Ga residue was confirmed by energy dispersive spectroscopy.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.51
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• pp.19.1-19.7
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• 2021

The main purpose of this paper is the preparation of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) samples from the microsized powders of lithium-ion secondary batteries. To avoid artefacts during TEM sample preparation, the use of ion slicer milling for thinning and maintaining the intrinsic structure is described. Argon-ion milling techniques have been widely examined to make optimal specimens, thereby making TEM analysis more reliable. In the past few years, the correction of spherical aberration (Cs) in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) has been developing rapidly, which results in direct observation at an atomic level resolution not only at a high acceleration voltage but also at a deaccelerated voltage. In particular, low-kV application has markedly increased, which requires a sufficiently transparent specimen without structural distortion during the sample preparation process. In this study, sample preparation for high-resolution STEM observation is accomplished, and investigations on the crystal integrity are carried out by Cs-corrected STEM.

• Applied Microscopy
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.47-55
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• 2006

In this paper a transmission electron microscope (TEM) observation of fine Cu precipitates distributed randomly in Al-2.5Cu-1.5Mg wt.% alloy is first reported. This new observation happened to occur when an ion milling was peformed to remove oxides on the specimen, particularly, aged 100 hours at $150^{\circ}C$. Meanwhile the oxides were identified to be $Cu_2O$ particles. For this work involved with analysis of diffraction rings, the formulation of the electron diffraction rings pattern for powder particles was made. Finally the significance of this unexpected ion milling effort on the alloy was discussed

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.245-250
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• 2011

A high-resolution shadow mask, a nanostencil, is widely used for high resolution lithography. This high-resolution shadowmask is often fabricated by a combination of MEMS processes and focused ion beam (FIB) milling. In this study, FIB milling on 500-nm-thin SiN membrane was tested and characterized. 500 nm thick and $2{\times}2$ mm large membranes were made on a silicon wafer by micro-fabrication processes of LPCVD, photolithography, ICP etching and bulk silicon etching. A subsequent FIB milling enabled local membrane thinning and aperture making into the thinned silicon nitride membrane. Due to the high resolution of the FIB milling process, nanoscale apertures down to 60 nm could be made into the membrane. The nanostencil could be used for nanoscale patterning by local deposition through the apertures.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.36-36
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• 2002