NOVEL SCHEME FOR THE PREPARATION OF TRANSMISSION ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY SPECIMENS WITH A FOCUSED ION-BEAM

A novel scheme is presented for the preparation of cross-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) specimens, with a focused ion beam (FIB). This scheme is particularly suitable for highly structured substrates, such as integrated circuits. The specimen is made by cutting a thin slice of material from the substrate by sputtering with the FIB. The position of the specimen can be selected with submicron resolution The specimen is subsequently removed from the substrate and transported to a standard TEM-specimen holder. A specimen, ready for TEM inspection, can be prepared within 2 hs. The samples are of excellent quality as is illustrated with cross-section TEM images of FIB-made specimens of an electrically programmable read-only memory.