Microfabrication techniques using focused ion beams and emergent applications.

The application of focused ion beam (FIB) machining in several technologies aimed at microstructure fabrication is presented. These emergent applications include the production of micromilling tools for machining of metals and the production of microsurgical tools. An example of the use of microsurgical manipulators in a circulatory system measurement is presented. The steps needed to transform the laboratory fabrication of these tools and manipulators into a routine FIB production process are discussed. The ion milling of three-dimensional cavities by the exact solution of a mathematical model of the FIB deflection is demonstrated. A good agreement between the model calculation and the ion beam control has been obtained for parabolic and cosine cross-section features with planes of symmetry.

Controlled fabrication of nanopores using a direct focused ion beam approach with back face particle detection.

We report a direct, ion drilling technique that enables the reproducible fabrication and placement of nanopores in membranes of different thickness. Using a 30 keV focused Ga ion beam column combined with an in situ, back face, multi-channelplate particle detector, nanopores are sputtered in Si(3)N(4) and W/Si(3)N(4) to have diameters as small as 12 nm. Transmission electron microscopy shows that focused ion beam-drilled holes are near-conical with the diameter decreasing from entry to exit side. By monitoring the detector signal during ion exposure, the drilled hole width can be minimized such that the exit-side diameter is smaller than the full width at half-maximum of the nominally Gaussian-shaped incident beam. Judicious choice of the beam defining aperture combined with back face particle detection allows for reproducible exit-side hole diameters between 18 and 100 nm. The nanopore direct drilling technique does not require potentially damaging broad area exposure to tailor hole sizes. Moreover, this technique successfully achieves breakthrough despite the effects of varying membrane thickness, redeposition, polycrystalline grain structure, and slight ion beam current fluctuations.