Redeposition of substrate material on a fiducial resulting from charged particle beam (CPB) or laser beam milling of a substrate can be reduced with a shield formed on the substrate surface. The shield typically has a suitable height that can be selected based on proximity of an area to be milled to the fiducial. The shield can be formed with the milling beam using beam-assisted chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The same or different beams can be used for milling and beam-assisted CVD.

A method of processing a region of a sample, the method comprising: positioning a sample within a vacuum chamber; generating an ion beam with a focused ion beam (FIB) column; focusing the ion beam on the sample and scanning the focused ion beam across the region of the sample thereby generating secondary electrons that are ejected from a surface of the sample within the region; and during the scanning, applying a negative bias voltage to an electrically conductive structure proximate the region to alter a trajectory of the secondary electrons and repel the secondary electrons back to the sample surface, wherein the electrically conductive structure is one of a gas injection nozzle, a voltage pin or a nano-manipulator.

A system may include a substrate stage, configured to support a substrate, where a main surface of the substrate defines a substrate plane. The system may include an ion source, including an extraction assembly that is oriented to direct an ion beam to the substrate along a trajectory defining a non-zero angle of incidence with respect to a perpendicular to the substrate plane. The system may include a radical source oriented to direct a radical beam to the substrate along a trajectory defining the non-zero angle of incidence with respect to a perpendicular to the substrate plane. The substrate stage may be further configured to scan the substrate along a first direction, lying with the substrate plane, while the main surface of the substrate is oriented within the substrate plane.

A material recovery system for an optical component includes a reservoir containing gas and configured to supply a gas flow containing the gas. The material recovery system also includes an ion beam generator disposed on the reservoir and configured to receive the gas flow and to ionize the gas in the gas flow to generate an ion beam. The ion beam is configured to be directed to the optical component to remove at least a portion of a F-containing optical material degraded by exposure to VUV radiation, DUV radiation, and/or photo-contamination.

Linear fiducials including notches or chevrons with known angles relative to each other are formed such that each branch of a chevron appears in a cross-sectional face of the sample as a distinct structure. Therefore, when imaging the cross-section face during the cross-sectioning operation, the distance between the identified structures allows unique identification of the position of the cross-section plane along the Z axis. Then a direct measurement of the actual position of each slice can be calculated, allowing for dynamic repositioning to account for drift in the plane of the sample and also dynamic adjustment of the forward advancement rate of the FIB to account for variations in the sample, microscope, microscope environment, etc. that contributes to drift. An additional result of this approach is the ability to dynamically calculate the actual thickness of each acquired slice as it is acquired.

The present invention relates to methods and devices for extending a time period until changing a measuring tip of a scanning probe microscope. In particular, the invention relates to a method for hardening a measuring tip for a scanning probe microscope, comprising the step of: Processing the measuring tip with a beam of an energy beam source, the energy beam source being part of a scanning electron microscope.

Polishing method comprising the steps of: —providing at least one crystalline layer or substrate, the at least one crystalline layer or substrate extending in at least one plane, and including at least one outer surface and at least one depression extending from the at least one outer surface; and —polishing the at least one outer surface using ion beam etching (IBE) or an accelerated inert gas ion beam, the ion beam being incident on the at least one outer surface at non-normal incidence or at a non-zero angle (θ) with respect to the surface normal of the at least one plane of the crystalline layer or substrate.

Embodiments described herein relate to methods of forming gratings with different slant angles on a substrate and forming gratings with different slant angles on successive substrates using angled etch systems. The methods include positioning portions of substrates retained on a platen in a path of an ion beam. The substrates have a grating material disposed thereon. The ion beam is configured to contact the grating material at an ion beam angle relative to a surface normal of the substrates and form gratings in the grating material. The substrates are rotated about an axis of the platen resulting in rotation angles ϕ between the ion beam and a surface normal of the gratings. The gratings have slant angles relative to the surface normal of the substrates. The rotation angles ϕ selected by an equation ϕ=cos.sup.−1 (tan()/tan()).

A miller, a non-transitory computer readable medium, and a method for milling a multi-layered object. The method may include (i) receiving or determining milling parameters related to a milling process, the milling parameters may include at least two out of (a) a defocus strength, (b) a duration of the milling process, (c) a bias voltage supplied to an objective lens during the milling process, (d) an ion beam energy, and (e) an ion beam current density, and (ii) forming a crater by applying the milling process while maintaining the milling parameters, wherein the applying of the milling process includes directing a defocused ion beam on the multi-layered object.

One aspect of this description relates to a method for operating an integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing system. The method includes placing a first nano-sheet structure within a IC layout diagram. The first nano-sheet structure has a first width. The method includes abutting a second nano-sheet structure with the first nano-sheet structure. The second nano-sheet structure has a second width. The second width is less than the first width. The method includes generating and storing the IC layout diagram in a storage device.