Recent Developments in Nanofabrication Using Focused Ion Beams

Abstract

Focused ion beam (FIB) technology has become increasingly popular in the fabrication of nanoscale structures. In this paper, the recent developments of the FIB technology are examined with emphasis on its ability to fabricate a wide variety of nanostructures. FIB-based nanofabrication involves four major approaches: milling, implantation, ion-induced deposition, and ion-assisted etching of materials; all these approaches are reviewed separately. Following an introduction of the uniqueness and strength of the technology, the ion source and systems used for FIB are presented. The principle and specific techniques underlying each of the four approaches are subsequently studied with emphasis on their abilities of writing structures with nanoscale accuracy. The differences and uniqueness among these techniques are also discussed. Finally, concluding remarks are provided where the strength and weakness of the techniques studied are summarized and the scopes for technological improvement and future research are recommended.

Focused Ion Beam Lithography

“…The ion beam is used for imaging (Orloff et al, 1996), local implantation (Schmidt et al, 1997), physical milling (Giannuzzi & Stevie, 1999), gas-assisted etching (Utke et al, 2008), localized deposition (Matsui et al, 2000) and for exposure of resist layers (J. Melngailis, 1993) (Lee & Chung, 1998) as extensively described in literature (Tseng, 2005); (Giannuzzi & Stevie, 1999) (Jeon et al, 2010) (Tseng, 2004) and is therefore not further discussed here in detail.…”

Fabrication of all-transparent polymer-based and encapsulated nanofluidic devices using nano-indentation lithography

“…Traditionally, electron beam lithography 16 , focused ion beam lithography 17 , and nanoimprint lithography 10,18 have mostly been used to create nanometer-sized structures in nanofluidic devices in the past. For the fabrication of the nanochannels, these conventional approaches have definite advantages with respect to a high level of controllability, resolution, and reproducibility.…”

Process considerations for layer-by-layer 3D patterning of silicon, using ion implantation, silicon deposition, and selective silicon etching

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] These techniques provide an effective way of manufacturing arbitrarily shaped three-dimensional (3D) structures. Different additive layer-by-layer manufacturing approaches exist, which make use of various materials such as polymers, waxes, ceramics, semiconductors, and metals.…”

“…Different additive layer-by-layer manufacturing approaches exist, which make use of various materials such as polymers, waxes, ceramics, semiconductors, and metals. The techniques include stereolithography, 1,2 solid ground curing, 1 selective laser sintering, 1,6 3D inkjet printing, 1 laminated object modeling, 2,7 and fused deposition modeling, 1,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] including beam-assisted deposition techniques. [10][11][12][13][14][15] The achievable dimensions of the 3D structures strongly depend on the used technology and can range from several tens of nm to tens of lm.…”