SII NanoTechnology Inc. (President & CEO: Hiroyuki Funamoto; Head Office: 1-8 Nakase, Miahama-ku, Chiba, Chiba Prefecture; Tel: 043-211-1345), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Seiko Instruments Inc. (Abbreviation: SII; President, COO & CFO: Yukihiko Chayama; Head Office: 1-8 Nakase, Mihama-ku, Chiba, Chiba Prefecture; Tel: 043-211-1111) involved in the manufacture and sale of analysis and measurement instruments, releases on this day of March 3 SMI3050SE, a hybrid system of Focused Ion Beam (FIB) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) compatible with 50 mm samples.
SMI3050SE is an FIB-SEM hybrid system equipped with an ion beam optical system and electron beam optical system newly developed in response to the shrink of semiconductor devices, enabling high-precision sample processing and observation in comparison to conventional systems.
In recent years, shrink of semiconductor device in feature size have been accelerated, requiring management of the manufacturing process to the nuclear level. The Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) that had been positioned as an instrument for research and development is now widely used in this nuclear level management of the manufacturing process, bringing marked attention to FIB technology used in the fabrication of samples for TEM observation. In addition, FIB technology capable of manufacturing 3-D ultramicroscopic shapes in the nano meter order is now recognized as essential to the research and development of nanotechnology, which is expected to bring about innovation in many industries, such as biotechnology.
SII NanoTechnology (formerly the Scientific Instruments Division of SII) has delivered over 500 units of FIB systems both nationally and internationally since its sale of pioneering FIB systems for semiconductor analysis in 1986 and the world’s first FIB-SEM hybrid system in 1990. The newly announced SMI3050SE incorporates SII system performance long established in the marketplace and the input of many customers, employing both world class ion beam and electron beam optical systems while integrating state-of-the-art computer technology.
[SMI3050SE Main Features]
(1)The new ion beam optical system attains an image resolution of 4 nm or less and a maximum current density of 30 A/cm2 or greater, enabling observation using clear, high-resolution imaging.
(2)The new system dramatically improves performance at the low ion beam acceleration voltage setting (5kV), facilitating high-precision processing with sample damage minimized at low acceleration, which has been difficult to achieve in the past. In addition, with the improvement of ion beam performance with ion currents in the minimum subpicoampere range, processing at the nano meter order is now easily achieved.
(3)The new electron beam optical system enables use of the FIB-SEM hybrid system for microscopic observations of the area processed with FIB at a resolution of 5 nm or less (acceleration voltage:1 kV), which is the resolution of the world’s highest standard. In addition, the system also realizes real-time monitoring of FIB processing by simultaneous electron beam irradiation.
(4)Inclining the electron beam optical system against a vertically positioned ion beam optical system permits SEM observation of the cross-section of the sample exposed by FIB sputter etching without requiring inclination of the sample.
(5)The sample fabrication software used for TEM observation, which is well reputed in the SMI2000 series, improves the throughput and processing precision that come with improvements in FIB performance.
(6)Use of state-of-the-art pattern recognition technology greatly reduces the necessary setup work prior to processing.
[Price]
SMI3050SE main unit: starts from 180 million yen
[Target sales amount]
10 units in the first year
[Sale start date]
March 3, 2004
Contact Information
Press Contact
Seiko Instruments Inc.
Corporate Communications Dept.
Fax:+81-43-211-8011
Product Inquiry
SII NanoTechnology Inc.
SMI Sales Division
Tel:+81-43-211-1345