Method and arrangement for manufacturing a sample for microstructural materials diagnostics and corresponding sample

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9492893-B2
Application number	US-201414243354-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 2, 2014
Priority date	Apr 4, 2013
Publication date	Nov 15, 2016
Grant date	Nov 15, 2016

Abstract

Method for manufacturing a sample for microstructural materials diagnostics, especially for transmission electron microscopy examinations, for scanning electron microscopy examinations for transmission electron-backscatter diffraction, for Rutheford backscatter diffraction, for elastic recoil detection analysis, for X-ray absorption spectroscopy or for X-ray diffraction, comprising detaching a basic structure from a preferably flat substrate by irradiating the substrate with a high energy beam, preferably with a laser beam, wherein the basic structure comprises a supported structure being supported by a supporting structure, preferably a cantilever beam which is supported at least at one of its both ends, preferably at both of its ends, by the supporting structure, the supporting structure being configured to be held by a jig, preferably to be clamped in the jig, and thinning the supported structure at least in sections by cutting, preferably by grazing, its surface, preferably at least at one of its lateral faces and/or of its front faces, preferably two opposing ones of its lateral faces, with the high energy beam.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for manufacturing a sample for microstructural materials diagnostics comprising:
detaching a basic structure from a substrate by irradiating the substrate with a laser beam as an high-energy beam so that the detached basic structure comprises a supported structure and a supporting structure, wherein the supported structure is supported by the supporting structure and wherein the supporting structure is configured to be held by a jig, and
thinning the supported structure at least in sections by cutting its surface with the laser beam, wherein
the thinning of the supported structure is carried out by irradiating the laser beam onto the supported structure in such a way that a boundary area of the incident laser beam grazes the supported structure in a direction parallel to the substrate's plane of the supported structure, wherein the main beam axis of the laser beam is tilted, relative to the substrate's plane of the supported structure, by an angle α≧5° and α≦20°, wherein the thinning of the supported structure is carried out by introducing, due to laser-beam-induced material removal, at least one channel structure(s) into the surface of the supported structure, into at least one of lateral faces and/or of front faces of the supported structure, or into two opposing lateral faces of the supported structure, wherein the longitudinal direction of the channel structure(s) is/are aligned perpendicular to the longitudinal extension of the supported structure, wherein said at least one channel structure(s) has a diameter of 10-20 micrometers, and a centre distance to an adjacent channel structure(s) of 20-50 micrometers.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after the thinning of the supported structure, a thinning postprocessing is performed in order to further thin a section or sections of the supported structure which has/have already been thinned by the cutting incidence of the laser beam in said laser beam based thinning, wherein the thinning postprocessing is performed by ion beam etching and/or by irradiating the section of the supported structure which has/have already been thinned by the cutting incidence of the laser beam with an ion beam.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein after the thinning of the supported structure, the thinning postprocessing is performed in order to further thin a remaining section or remaining sections which remain(s), after the laser-beam-based thinning, between two channel structures introduced into two opposing lateral faces of the supported structure and opposing each other and/or in that the ion beam is irradiated onto and/or into the section(s) of the supported structure which has/have already been thinned by the cutting in at least one of the following manners:
as a focused or broad ion beam, with a grazing incidence, and/or with a glancing angle β>0°, between the substrate's plane of the supported structure and the main beam axis of the ion beam.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein said glancing angel β≧2° and ≦15°.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein said glancing angle β=4°.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the thinning of the supported structure is carried out by irradiating the laser beam onto the supported structure in such a way that a boundary area of the incident laser beam grazes, the supported structure in a direction parallel to the substrate's plane of the supported structure, wherein a main beam axis of the laser beam is tilted, relative to the substrate's plane of the supported structure, by half of the broadening angle 2α of the laser beam and/or by an angle α≧5° and α≦20°.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the angle α≧5° and α≦20°.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the angle α≧8° and α≦12°.

9. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the angle α=10°.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein seen along the longitudinal extension of the supported structure, several channel structures are introduced parallel to each other and in a spaced relationship to each other into the surface of the supported structure, into at least one of the lateral faces of the supported structure, or into both of the two opposing lateral faces of the supported structure, wherein when introducing several channel structures in this manner into both of the two opposing lateral faces of the supported structure, for each channel structure introduced into one of the two opposing lateral faces, another channel structure is introduced into the other of the two opposing lateral faces in a symmetrical manner with respect to the substrate's plane of the supported structure.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the several channel structures are introduced into the lateral face(s) of the supported structure in such a manner that at least one of the channel structures is not introduced, seen in the longitudinal direction of the respective channel structure, along width of the supported structure, wherein those channel structures of both of the two opposing lateral faces which are introduced adjacent to the ends of the supported structure are not introduced along the whole extension of the supported structure, and/or in that the several channel structures are introduced into the lateral face(s) of the supported structure in such a manner that channel structures are, seen in the longitudinal direction of the respective channel structure, emanating from both front faces of the supported structure, or emanating alternately from one front face and from another front face of the supported structure.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein thickness of the substrate perpendicular to the substrate's plane and/or thickness of the supported structure perpendicular to the substrate's plane of the supported structure is, including the limits, between 50 μm and 500 μm, and/or in that the substrate is a ground plate, and/or in that the width of the supported structure, that is the dimension of the supported structure perpendicular to its longitudinal extension and perpendicular to its thickness, is, including the limits, between 100 μm and 2500 μm.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein section(s) of the supported structure which are thinned by the cutting incidence of the laser beam in the thinning, a remaining section or remaining sections which remain(s), after the laser-beam-based thinning, between two channel structures introduced into two opposing lateral faces of the supported structure and opposing each other, has/have a minimum thickness perpendicular to the substrate's plane of the supported structure which is, including the limits, between 0.5 μm and 50 μm.

14. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after the detaching of the basic structure from the substrate, the laser beam is focused by a focusing optics and/or is deflected by a galvanometer scanner before it is irradiated onto the supported structure and/or the supported structure is moved, relative to the impinging laser beam, with an x-y-z table or a scanning stage in order to realize the cutting incidence of the laser beam onto the supported structure during said thinning and/or in that after the detaching of the basic structure from the substrate, the supporting structure of the basic structure is held by the jig, the latter being tiltable around a first axis and/or tiltable around a second axis, and is positioned, with the jig, relative to the laser beam in order to realize the cutting incidence of the laser beam onto the supported structure in said thinning.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the detaching of the basic structur

Assignees

• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Zur Foerderung Der Angewandten Forschung E V

Inventors

• Krause Michael
• Hoeche Thomas

Classifications

• G01N2001/2886

  Laser cutting, e.g. tissue catapult · CPC title

• H01J2237/31745

  for preparing specimen to be viewed in microscopes or analyzed in microanalysers · CPC title

• G01N1/286 Primary

  involving mechanical work, e.g. chopping, disintegrating, compacting, homogenising (microtomes G01N1/06; pulverising in general B02C; mixing in general B01F) · CPC title

• G01N1/00

  Sampling; Preparing specimens for investigation · CPC title

• G01N1/32

  Polishing; Etching · CPC title