Plasma FIB

What we can do

LF launches its industry advanced Thermo Fisher Scientific Helios 5 Plasma FIB (PFIB). With more than 20 times faster etching rate compared with small Dual-Beam FIB and high resolution SEM, PFIB can pinpoint nanoscale characteristics or defects in areas of size up to hundreds of um.

For small areas and local cross section analysis, it’s better to stick with Dual-Beam FIB for its cutting-while-shooting capacity and fast structure diagram availability. However, for large area structure observation (with cross sections size greater than 100um or depth greater than 50um), the PFIB not only far outperforms with more than 20 times faster etching rate and more accurate analysis results, but also comes without the drawbacks of structural damage and poor positioning due to grinding stress suffered by the conventional grinding approach.

What is Plasma FIB?

The principle of Plasma FIB (P FIB) is similar to Dual Beam FIB (DB FIB), the difference is as follows:
Ion source Xe⁺ Ion plasma Ga⁺ Ion
(Probe current) 1.5 pA~2.5 μA 1.1 pA~65 nA
Ga Ions used by DB FIB tend to attach to the sample surface; instead, Xe used by P FIB reduces sample contamination by Ga Ions.
P FIB is capable of running over large areas more than 20 times faster than DB FIB.