TESCAN, one of the leading companies in charged particle optics, 4D micro-CT and bespoke solutions, and 3D-Micromac AG, the industry leader in laser micromachining systems, collaborate to provide a more efficient workflow to diagnose a variety of materials and to root cause defects in functional materials and devices. Reducing the cost as well as time and skills demanding hours of labor to reach the region of interest (ROI), to just minutes.
The microPREP™ PRO laser system for efficient sample preparation. Image Credit: 3D-Micromac AG
Currently, samples of metals, semiconductors, ceramics, and compound materials are analyzed with focused ion beam (FIB) methods. TESCAN Plasma FIB-SEM is used throughout the semiconductor, automotive, and aerospace market segments as an industry-proven solution. These have, however, an increasing need for even larger volume material removal when FA is required on deeply buried ROIs or very large cross-sections.
“At TESCAN we are excited to vastly decrease the time-to-result of demanding failure analysis tasks, with the ability to analyze even larger volumes and create a much more productive workflow for industrial FA environments. We see a strong potential to create further synergies between TESCAN and 3D-Micromac portfolio as well as other FA tools in the FA labs to double-underline the meaning of solution,” said Jozef Vincenc Oboňa, Product Marketing Director at TESCAN. Typical sample preparation with Plasma FIB can take several hours and is mainly focused on FA tasks of sub-millimeter dimensions. “3D-Micromac’s microPREP™ PRO uses an ultra-short laser pulse ablation technique that allows the processing of much larger volume tasks in FA exceeding a cubic millimeter”, commented Tino Petsch, CEO at 3D-Micromac AG.
The current application solution is already reducing the FA time in most tested cases at least by 50%, in some applications even 95%. On average 75% of the overall time is saved by using TESCAN’s industry-proven Plasma FIB-SEMs together with 3D-Micromac’s flexible laser systems microPREP™ PRO. Further joint development will ensure that Plasma FIB-SEMs and microPREP™ PRO systems do not act as individual instruments but become an integral part of the FA lab ecosystem.