Abstract text (incl. figure legends and references)
The success in materials research is to a certain extent determined by the characterization efficiency. Through faster analysis of materials properties, the performance of engineering materials is improved, better products in the semiconductors and microelectronics industry are developed; and advanced nanomaterials optimize properties of catalysts, coatings, polymers, and many more.
It is obvious, that developing new products and technology is very challenging. One area where laser ablation along with FIB-SEMs plays an important role is Failure Analysis (FA). The goal of FA is to determine the defect"s root cause and provides feedback to maintain feasible time-to-market and product reliability. This must be done as precisely as possible and as fast as possible. Industry-proven plasma FIB technology serving these purposes for nearly a decade. Recently, however, significant increases in both the complexity of the devices and the depth of buried defects, together with pressure on time-to-result may push the plasma FIB speed to its limit. There are different methods how to further enhance sample preparation throughput of a Plasma FIB-SEM without sacrificing the quality of the data—such as the utilization of rocking polishing or mask method—nevertheless, ultimate throughput can be achieved by the smart implementation of the laser ablation technique in some steps of the Failure Analysis workflow. Through the purpose-designed workflow, the plasma FIB sample analysis efficiency is increased, time to the results decreased while new synergies among laser ablation and FIB-SEMs are opened.
In this talk, you will learn about TESCAN Large Volume Workflow. We will guide you through the use cases where wide range of materials and complex devices were investigated for their failures. By the end of the talk, we disclose the method which is used to achieve fast, artifact-free sample preparation while achieving high-quality results proven by UHR SEM imaging.