A new marking technique for the site-specific target in focused ion beam-based transmission electron microscopy thin foil preparation

As semiconductor device feature size continues to be scaled down, we have found several problems in the conventional marking techniques used for site-specific target transmission electron microscopy sample preparation. The main problems are the curtain effect, thin foil bending, and a low success rate of failure analysis. The conventional marking technique uses the milling method of focused ion beam. Contrastingly, the new marking technique uses a deposition method. By adopting a combination of deposition and markers with various sizes and shapes which allows differential milling using three levels of ion beam energy, the new marking technique produces precise and high-quality results. Moreover, it can be applied in mass production. We expect that the new marking technique can be applied in sub-10-nm semiconductor devices.