SBIR-STTR Award

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will evaluate the feasibility of developing gas-cluster ion-beam (GCIB) sputtering of semiconductor surfaces into innovative tools for electronic materials. This research will evaluate GCIB sputtering for secondary-ion mass spectrometer (SIMS) instruments. The overriding motivation for this R&D is the critical need in the semiconductor industry for techniques and methods which can etch in a highly uniform manner and thus facilitate accurate and sensitive depth measurements. Future generations of microelectronics must have ultra-shallow junction depths, higher doping levels and improvement in interface and doping abruptness to meet the 1997 SIA Roadmap. Dynamic SIMS is the most sensitive technique for analysis of semiconductors. State-of-the-art instruments employ energetic, monatomic ion beams to sputter the analytical surface. These roughen the surface and limit depth resolution. To achieve the required subnanometer depth resolutions in SIMS new sputter beams must be developed. GCIB methods with singly ionized argon or oxygen clusters (of 1,000) sputter with nearly atomic depth resolution, and high secondary-ion yields. Phase I will construct a prototype system to demonstrate analytical feasibility. Phase II will develop dedicated ion sources for critical analysis to provide depth profiling for SIMS, and Auger-electron and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopies. The proposed technology will enable analysis of next-generation semiconductor devices having much higher performance and enhance manufacturing yields. Epion is the first and only to manufacture GCIB systems. The basic GCIB technique will have a wide applicability to many areas of electronic materials processing and manufacturing industry.

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will design, fabricate and test a prototype gas-cluster ion-beam (GCIB) sputtering tool for depth profiles with monolayer-specific surface analysis of thin films. Applications will be to multilayer thin films of key importance in the microelectronics industries including semiconductors, metals in magnetic sensors, and dielectrics in photonic and micro-optical devices. The sputtering tool is expected to meet aggressive performance specifications including depth resolution of less than 1 nm in conjunction with mass spectrometry. This GCIB tool will be designed particularly for in-situ sputtering with surface-analytical instruments including the secondary-ion mass spectrometer (SIMS), the Auger electron spectrometer (AES) and the x-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). The overriding motivation is the critical need in microelectronics for techniques to obtain accurate sputter depth measurements. The Phase-I effort demonstrated those GCIB methods with argon clusters sputter with near-atomic smoothness, high depth resolution and high secondary-ion yields. Minor instrumental design issues limited the cluster beam exposure uniformity and this artificially limited the average depth resolution measured. Straightforward engineering solutions are well known and are expected to yield improvements in Phase II that will provide depth resolution of well below 1 nm. The proposed technology will enable analysis of next-generation microelectronics devices having much thinner films. Epion is the first and only to manufacture GCIB systems. The tool to be prototyped will enable and have a wide applicability to many areas of the electronic materials processing and manufacturing industry.