KEYWORDS: Electron beams, Semiconductors, Scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy, Laser irradiation, Semiconductor materials, Group III-V semiconductors, Electron microscopes, Vacuum
Semiconductor photocathodes are electron beam sources with versatile electron beam performance such as pulsed structure as well as high beam current with high monochromaticity. Photocathode using GaN semiconductor material has solved the durability problem, resulting in the development of a compact photocathode electron gun suitable for industrial technology. The photocathode electron gun can be retrofitted to existing electron microscopes, has the same brightness as a cold field emitter cathode, and the pulsed beam not only brings selective beam irradiation to arbitrary area in the field of view in SEM imaging, but also allows blur-free TEM imaging of moving samples.
An InGaN photocathode with a negative electron affinity (NEA) surface is suitable for industrial use because of features such as a long quantum efficiency lifetime, availability with a visible laser as an excitation light source, and the presence of a transmission-type structure. The first objective is the development of an InGaN photocathode electron gun that can be mounted on a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the evaluation of the electron beam size at the emission point, maximum emission current, and transverse energy of the electron beam, which are important factors for realizing a high probe current in the SEM. The second objective is the evaluation of emission current stability, while the third objective is the generation of a pulsed electron beam and multi-electron beam from the InGaN photocathode. The parameters of the electron beam from the photocathode electron gun were an emission beam radius of 1 μm, transverse energy of 44 meV, and an emission current of up to 110 μA. Using a high beam current with low transverse energy from the photocathode, a 13 nA probe current with 10 nm SEM resolution was observed with 15 μA emission. At 15 μA, the continuous electron beam emission for 1300 h was confirmed; at 30 μA, the cycle time between the NEA surface reactivations was confirmed to be 90 h with 0.043% stability. Moreover, a 4.4 ns pulsed e-beam with a 4.7 mA beam current was generated, and a 5 × 5 multielectron beam with 12% uniformity was then obtained. The advantages of the InGaN photocathode, such as high electron beam current, low transverse energy, long quantum efficiency lifetime, pulsed electron beam, and multi-electron beam, are useful in industries including semiconductor device inspection tools.
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) with photocathode technology was launched by retrofitting the photocathode electron gun to a commercial-based SEM system. In this SEM system, the excitation laser for photoelectron generation from the photocathode is synchronized to the scanning signal. SEM images were obtained by high-speed modulation of the photoelectron beam current using the photocathode SEM, where the location in the field of view and its irradiation current were arbitrarily selected on a pixel-by-pixel basis (Selective e-Beaming technology). As a demonstration experiment contributing to non-contact electrical inspection, low-voltage SEM imaging of MOS-FET structures in 3D-NAND flash memory was performed using this selective e-beam technology. As a result, changes in the voltage contrast of the drain electrode were observed in response to on/off selective electron beam irradiation to the gate electrode in the MOS-FET structure. As an extension of the selective electron beaming technology, a Yield Controlled e-beaming (YCeB) technology was invented to control the secondary electron yield generated in the entire field of view of the SEM image by feedback control of the laser power irradiating the photocathode to the intensity of each pixel in the SEM image. The YCeB image, in which the laser power intensity corresponding to the probe intensity is modulated so that the secondary electron yield generated in the entire field of view of the SEM image is constant, is a clearer image with less noise than the original SEM image.
A photocathode electron source using p-type GaN and p-type InGaN semiconductors with a negative electron affinity
(NEA) surface has been studied for its ability to maintain an extended NEA state. The key technology of NEA
photocathodes is the formation of electric dipoles by atoms on the surface, which makes it possible for photo excited
electrons in the conduction band minimum to escape into the vacuum. This means that in order to keep the electron
energy spread as small as possible, the excitation photon energy should be tuned to the band gap energy. However, the
NEA surface is damaged by the adsorption of residual gas and the back-bombardment of ionized residual gas by
photoelectrons. The p-type GaN and InGaN semiconductors were measured a lifetime of quantum yield of excitation
energy corresponding to the band gap energy in comparison to the p-type GaAs as the conventional NEA photocathode.
Lifetime of NEA-photocathodes using the GaN and InGaN were 21 times and 7.7 times longer respectively than that
using the GaAs.
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