High-Resolution X-Ray Inspection Microscope Using Thermal Field Emitter

摘要

X-ray Microscope Inspection Systems using thermal electron emitters such as those made of lanthanum hexa-boride (LaB{sub}6) have rather recently achieved a spatial resolution of about 0.4μm, which was a practical technical limit. This limitation has been due to the limited current flow of the focused electron beam as it hits the X-ray target, and due to limited ability to further reduce the size of the electron probe spot. Now, we have developed a thermal field electron emitter with two orders of magnitude higher brightness coupled with a new type of condenser lens to produce an X-ray Microscope Inspection System capable of 100-nanometer spatial resolution. This is expected to enable examination of internal structures of semiconductor IC devices, micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), or cells of biological specimens in more detail or much sharper resolution.