D Lenz

Toward atom probe tomography of microelectronic devices

Atom probe tomography and scanning transmission electron microscopy has been used to analyze a commercial microelectronics device prepared by depackaging and focused ion beam milling. Chemical and morphological data are presented from the source, drain and channel regions, and part of the gate oxide region of an Intel® i5-650 p-FET device demonstrating feasibility in using these techniques to investigate commercial chips.

Atom Probe Tomography Analysis of Thick Film SiO 2 and Oxide Interfaces: Conditions Leading to Improved Analysis Yield

Atom Probe Tomography (APT) is a time-of-flight mass spectrometry imaging technique that establishes extreme surface electric fields (~20 V/nm) on a specimen to initiate field-evaporation of surface material [1]. Consequently, it is somewhat surprising that a number of recent results have established that large band-gap dielectric materials (electrical insulators) can be analyzed by laserpulsed APT, especially when the bulk band-gap of the material readily exceeds the photon energy of the laser-pulse used to heat the sample. These dielectric materials include but are not limited to Al2O3, SiO2, ZnO, MgO, and olivine [2-6].

Hardware and Software Advances in Commercially Available Atom Probe Tomography Systems

Over the past 15 years, the number of peer reviewed publications referencing the use of atom probe tomography (APT) has grown by nearly a factor of five [1]. A number of factors are involved in this very rapid adoption of APT, a microscopy that has been in use since the early 1970s. The performance of the typical atom probe today is orders of magnitude better than the early systems in terms of data collection rate, field of view, mass resolving power, reliability and software. The availability of easy to use laser pulsed systems coupled with the changes in performance and availability of FIB-SEM sample preparation has dramatically opened the array of applications that can be analyzed. These advances, with the improved ease of use and availability of atom probe tomography microscopes, have changed the typical user from an expert in APT to a scientist looking for answers that other microscopies cannot provide.

Data Quality Improvements in the Voltage-Pulsed LEAP 5000 R/XR

Performance advances in atom probe tomography (APT) in recent years have driven a dramatic increase in the number of APT articles published. One area of rapid research growth is analysis of fragile or insulating materials that require a laser-pulsed atom probe [1]. However, for multi-user facilities around the world, voltage pulsing is still used regularly (averaging ~40% of the experiments), and at some facilities voltage-pulsed analyses comprise greater than 60% of the experiments [2].

Performance Advances in LEAP systems

Performance advances in Atom Probe Tomography (APT) in recent years have driven a dramatic expansion in the published literature. This expansion is evidence that easier, faster, and better threedimensional nanoscale compositional information can enable a wide variety of research that was not reasonable to pursue even several years ago. Since the introduction of the commercially available laserpulsed atom probe in 2006, publications reporting APT results have tripled and the variety of applications continues to expand with each year [1].