A method of failure analysis for locating open circuit defect in a metal layers, comprising: providing a chip sample having a metal layer, with an open circuit defect; delaminating the chip to expose the metal layer; depositing a metal conductive layer on the metal layer; removing a portion of the metal conductive layer to expose the metal layer; depositing a non-conductive protective layer to cover the exposed metal layer and any remaining portions of the metal conductive layer; preparing a TEM slice sample which comprises the metal layer, the remaining portions of the metal conductive layer, and the non-conductive protective layer; performing a VC analysis on the TEM slice sample to determine the defect position of the open circuit defect; and analyzing the defect position of the open circuit defect.

The present application discloses a method for preparing a TEM sample, comprising: step 1, forming a first protective layer to non-full fill a deep trench; step 2, performing a first time of front and rear side cutting using a FIB, so as to form the TEM sample having a first thickness, and a via in the deep trench is exposed from the front side and the rear side of the TEM sample; step 3, forming a second material layer, which fully fills the exposed via from the front side and the rear side of the TEM sample; and step 4, performing a second time of front and rear side cutting of a target area on the chip sample using the FIB, so as to reduce the thickness of the TEM sample to a target thickness.

A method prepares a microsample from a volume sample using multiple particle beams. The method includes providing a volume sample in the microscope system, wherein the interior of the volume sample has a sample region of interest, and producing a macrolamella comprising the sample region of interest by removing sample material of the volume sample using one of the particle beams. The method also includes orienting the macrolamella relative to one of the particle beams, and removing sample material of the macrolamella via a beam so that the region of interest is exposed.

Tweezers 8, which can grip a sample piece 9, includes a gripping member 8a1 and a gripping member 8a2. The gripping member 8a1 includes a gripping region 8c1 and an abutment region 8b1, and the gripping member 8a2 includes a gripping region 8c2 and an abutment region 8b2. The gripping region 8c1 and the gripping region 8c2 include a gripping surface SF1 and a gripping surface SF2 for gripping the sample piece 9, respectively. The abutment region 8b1 protrudes from the gripping region 8c1 in a direction directed from the gripping surface SF1 to the gripping surface SF2, and the abutment region 8b2 protrudes from the gripping region 8c2 in a direction directed from the gripping surface SF2 to the gripping surface SF1.

The present application discloses a method for preparing a TEM sample, comprising: step 1, step 1, providing a chip sample having a metal protective layer formed on a first surface; step 2, fixing the chip sample on a sample table of a FIB system; step 3, performing the first time of FIB cutting on the metal protective layer along a first direction, so as to form a groove, wherein the first direction is the width direction of the TEM sample, and the inner side surface of the groove is arc-shaped so that the thickness of the metal protective layer in a groove area gradually changes; and step 4, performing the second time of FIB cutting along a third direction to thin the chip sample and form the TEM sample, wherein the third direction is a direction from the metal protective layer to the chip sample.

A charged particle buncher includes a series of spaced apart electrodes arranged to generate a shaped electric-field. The series includes a first electrode, a last electrode and one or more intermediate electrodes. The charged particle buncher includes a waveform device attached to the electrodes and configured to apply a periodic potential waveform to each electrode independently in a manner so as to form a quasi-electrostatic time varying potential gradient between adjacent electrodes and to cause spatial distribution of charged particles that form a plurality of nodes and antinodes. The nodes have a charged particle density and the antinodes have substantially no charged particle density, and the nodes and the antinodes are formed from a charged particle beam with an energy greater than 500 keV.

The invention relates to a method, a device and a system for the treatment of biological frozen samples using plasma focused ion beams (FIB). The samples can then be used for mass spectrometry (MS), genomics, such as gene sequencing analysis or next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis, and proteomics. The present invention particularly relates to a method of treatment of at least one biological sample. This method is particularly used for high performance microscopy, proteomics analytics, sequencing, such as NGS etc. According to the present invention the method comprises the steps of providing at least one biological sample in frozen form. The milling treats at least one part of the sample by a plasma ion beam comprising at least one of an O.sup.+ and/or a Xe.sup.+ plasma.

A carrier grid with integrated gas delivery system for use in a charged particle beam system (CPB). The carrier grid has a body with an internal reservoir for storing a gas. A post extends from the body with an end for supporting a sample to be operated upon, and an outlet tip extends from the end of the post. A channel extends from the reservoir, through the post and ends in the outlet tip, where the outlet tip seals the stored gas in the body. Cutting the outlet tip near its base, with a focused ion beam (FIB) by example, will open the channel to the CPB chamber, allowing the prestored gas within the reservoir to escape. A FIB or electron beam directed at the junction of the sample positioned near the post will cause deposition and subsequent attachment of the sample to the post in presence of the gas.

Apparatus and methods are disclosed for sample preparation, suitable for online or offline use with multilayer samples. Ion beam technology is leveraged to provide rapid, accurate delayering with etch stops at a succession of target layers. In one aspect, a trench is milled around a region of interest (ROI), and a conductive coating is developed on an inner sidewall. Thereby, reliable conducting paths are formed between intermediate layers within the ROI and a base layer, and stray current paths extending outside the ROI are eliminated, providing better quality etch progress monitoring, during subsequent etching, from body or scattered currents. Ion beam assisted gas etching provides rapid delayering with etch stops at target polysilicon layers. Uniform etching at deep layers can be achieved. Variations and results are disclosed.

A method of evaluating a region of interest of a sample including: positioning the sample within in a vacuum chamber of an evaluation tool that includes a scanning electron microscope (SEM) column and a focused ion beam (FIB) column; acquiring a plurality of two-dimensional images of the region of interest by alternating a sequence of delayering the region of interest with a charged particle beam from the FIB column and imaging a surface of the region of interest with the SEM column; generating an initial three-dimensional data cube representing the region of interest by stacking the plurality of two-dimensional images on top of each other in an order in which they were acquired; identifying distortions within the initial three-dimensional data cube; and creating an updated three-dimensional data cube that includes corrections for the identified distortions.