Dynamic SIMS

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is widely used for elemental surface and depth analysis of solids.  High sensitivity measurements in the low ppb range can be achieved for many elements using our Cameca 6f.  This dynamic magnetic sector SIMS instrument uses high energy beams (1 KeV to 15 KeV) with a high extraction field to provide fast sputter rates and high sensitivity depth profiling.

Quadrupole SIMS

Our Atomika 4500 quadrupole SIMS instrument uses low extraction fields to extract secondary ions from the sample, allowing low energy ion bombardment which enables high depth resolution and analysis of ultra-shallow implants and very thin films.  With this instrument, depth resolution of a few nanometers can be achieved.  Also, because of the low extraction fields, charge compensation for the analysis of insulating materials like SiO₂ and Si₃N₄ is improved.

Applications of SIMS

Major applications of SIMS include implant profiling with high precision, contamination analysis at the surface (up to 100 nm) or in the bulk (up to several microns) and characterization of thin films such as silicon rich nitride, oxynitride, BPTEOS and SiGe.  Special applications include investigation of device failure mechanisms where small area dopant measurements reveal important clues.  An important application is the measurement of hydrogen since most surface analytical methods cannot be used for hydrogen analysis.  A typical silicon rich nitride film used in semiconductor manufacturing was analyzed for hydrogen distribution using our Atomika 4500.  Since silane is frequently used as the precursor for such films, high concentrations of hydrogen are often found (see Figure 1).

Sherri Patrick is a Materials Engineer in Cerium’s Analytical Imaging section.  Sherri graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with an undergraduate degree in Microbiology.  Her experience includes 3 years in semiconductor manufacturing at Advanced Micro Devices prior to joining our lab 12 years ago.

Sherri’s area of expertise is transmission electron microscopy (TEM).  She prepares samples for TEM imaging utilizing our focused ion beam tools (FEI Strata 400S and FEI XL835). She collects images using both of our TEMs (FEI/Philips CM300 and JEOL 2010).  Sherri also performs elemental analysis of nano-structures using energy filtered TEM (EF-TEM) analysis with Gatan image filter (GIF) software and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDS) utilizing Noran software.  Sherri is a key member of Cerium’s team that provides device characterization and defect identification.