Semiconductor research and development
Innovation starts with research and development. Learn more about solutions to help you understand innovative structures and materials at the atomic level.
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Shrinking semiconductor geometries have led to increasingly more challenging nodes for pathfinding analysis. This necessitates increased capital expenses and puts greater pressure on new equipment to more rapidly reach entitled yield. Systems that can effectively combine multiple workflow steps into a single solution offer economy of scale to the lab and greater return on investment to the fabrication facility. Also, due to limited floorspace and budget, labs are pushing to have multiple analysis tools combined into a single system, rather than using many different instruments.
Laser ablation has been used to remove layers of material from a solid surface, typically in preparation for further analysis on a secondary tool such as a scanning electron microscope (SEM). A femtosecond laser can be combined with other instruments, such as a DualBeam (a combined focused ion beam and SEM). This offers you a unique in-situ workflow within a single system, eliminating the need for separate tools, as well as reducing cost and occupied lab space. Combining these technologies allows advanced packaging analysis labs to quickly characterize millimeter-scale volumes of material in 3D with nanometer resolution while preserving sample integrity. Using a plasma focused ion beam (PFIB), they can also get accurate large-volume 3D and sub-surface data up to 15,000 times faster than a typical gallium-ion FIB.
Thermo Fisher Scientific offers combined laser and DualBeam tools that couple our best-in-class SEM systems with a PFIB and an in-chamber, femtosecond laser beam. This allows you to perform high-resolution imaging and analysis with in-situ ablation capability, enabling unprecedented material removal rates and fast millimeter-scale characterization at nanometer resolution.
Laser ablation workflow example
This sample was prepared using an in-chamber femtosecond laser and then subsequently polished with a PFIB column.
Laser and PFIB cross section of a steel sample produced by additive manufacturing.
Cross section of a packaged solid-state battery sample prepared by laser ablation.
Close up of a GPU sample milled with a laser and polished using PFIB.
Nylon 6.6 (textile) sample prepared using an in-chamber laser.
Micropillar prepared using laser ablation and PFIB milling.
This sample was prepared using an in-chamber femtosecond laser and then subsequently polished with a PFIB column.
Laser and PFIB cross section of a steel sample produced by additive manufacturing.
Cross section of a packaged solid-state battery sample prepared by laser ablation.
Close up of a GPU sample milled with a laser and polished using PFIB.
Nylon 6.6 (textile) sample prepared using an in-chamber laser.
Micropillar prepared using laser ablation and PFIB milling.
Semiconductor research and development
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Electron microscopy services for
semiconductors
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