P. P. Tesch, N. S. Smith, N. P. Martin, D. Kinion, Oregon Physics LLC, Hillsboro, OR

Summary: A new FIB instrument has been developed with a volume removal rate that is more than 100X greater than existing FIBs based on a liquid metal ion source. This new FIB uses a RF plasma ion source on a commercially available FIB column to provide probe currents as high as 2 microAmperes. This new FIB has been operated with Oxygen, Argon, Xenon, or Helium providing metal free FIB milling.This high current FIB instrument is well suited to creating cross-sections for destructive physical analysis of structures from 100 micron to 1 mm in size. These types of cross-sections typically take a prohibitive amount of time with conventional FIB tools. This instrument also produces less structural damage than competing techniques for exposing large area cross-sections such as mechanical or chemical polishing.