Model assisted process control in micro- and nano-fabrication using Focused Ion Beam

The major interest in Focused Ion Beam (FIB) has been driven by the potential of the process to enable the fabrication of precision engineering parts, high resolution patterns and micro-moulds required in applications such as the manufacturing of miniaturised components for various heterogeneous systems, micro-fluidics, bio-medical, MEMS, and embedded electronic test devices. A major issue with realising the milling capability of FIB is associated with the ability to accurately control the depth variation. A computational model that predicts the milling depth as function of the ion beam scanning frequency and a number of process parameters is investigated and experimentally validated. The model can assist in specifying optimal FIB process parameters for achieving accurate shapes of the intended micro- or nano-features.