Microelectronics Research Center

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Ultra60_instructions

Outline for Level Zero Zeiss Ultra60 Training:

You must read these instructions. If you ask a question that is covered by these instructions we must assume you are an inattentive and careless user.
If you do not read these instructions you will not pass the check off.

No user is allowed to use the SEM or EDS computer for browsing the internet for any reason. No exceptions. Violators will be penalized.

  1. If you are a Level Zero User:
    1. You are only allowed to use the system from 8:00 to 18:00!
    2. You are not allowed to use the EDS or STEM system!
    3. You must use the default toolbar.
  2. SAFE OPERATING PROCEDURES
    1. Preventing contamination
      1. DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING YOU PUT IN THE CHAMBER WITH YOUR BARE HANDS!
      2. DO NOT TOUCH THE INSIDE OF CHAMBER WITH YOUR BARE HANDS!
      3. DO NOT TOUCH THE LOAD ROD WITH YOUR BARE HANDS.
      4. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR BODY WHILE WEARING GLOVES
      5. Your sample must be clean and dry.
    2. Avoiding damage to SEM
      1. THINK BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING!!!
      2. IF YOU TILT YOUR SAMPLE, YOU MUST CHECK THE CAMERA VIEW BEFORE YOU MOVE THE STAGE!
      3. You must get an image with the SE2 detector before you decrease the working distance.
    3. The emergency stop button for the stage is on the joystick console. Be sure you know the location of this button!
    4. If you violate any of these rules you will not be allowed to use the Ultra60.
  3. SmartSEM Familiarization
    1. The SmartSEM software is installed on the computers in room 234 on the second floor of the MiRC. You should operate the software to learn how to open control panels and where to find commands.
  4. IV. Mounting Samples
    1. You must mount your sample on a stub! You are NOT allowed to mount your sample directly to any sample holder!
    2. Only silver or carbon PAINT is allowed!
    3. Only standard semiconductor materials are allowed. Semiconductor (electrically conducting) wafers with or without CURED photoresist. All metals, glass, quartz, saphire.
    4. NO liquids or gels!
    5. NO Biological specimens of any type unless YOUR sample is approved in advance. This means that if you see George Burdell put a Yersinia Pestis sample in the SEM, you are NOT allowed to put your EXACT same Yersinia Pestis sample in the SEM unless you ALSO have approval!
    6. You should use the infrared lamp to dry the silver paint before you put your sample in the chamber.
  5. Loading/Unloading Sample
    1. Preliminaries
      1. When you arrive at the SEM the stage should be in the exchange position. If not, just click the LMB on the exchange icon.
      2. You must use the exchange macro or else you will get a stage touch alarm and you will have to initialize the stage.
      3. Your sample must fit into the load-lock.
      4. Have your sample mounted BEFORE you open the load lock!
    2. Load lock control panel
      1. When a button is pressed the green light will be on. When the button is cleared (off) the green light is off.
    3. Load sample
      1. Press PURGE button. Wait 30 seconds.
      2. Pull open load lock door until it latches open.
      3. Slide sample holder onto dovetail. Make sure the threaded hole in the sample holder is pointing toward the load rod.
      4. Pull load lock door a little, lift latch, close load lock door.
      5. Push and HOLD load lock door closed, press PUMP button. LISTEN to vacuum pump to make sure the load lock door is sealed!
      6. Press OPEN button. When the load lock reaches vacuum the gate valve to the chamber will open. The PUMP button and the OPEN button must both be pressed to turn on the light inside the chamber.
      7. Move the sample holder so it is in line with the load rod. There is a detent at the correct position.
    4. STAGE POSITION!
      1. 1. You must look through the load lock window and check to make sure the stage is in the correct position before you load your sample.
      2. You can look at the coordinates of the stage to check if the stage is in the exchange position.
        1. Click the LMB on the Stage tab in the SEM control panel to show the coordinates of the stage.
        2. There is a file named Exchange.txt on the desktop that shows the coordinates for the exchange position.
    5. Load rod (Do not touch the load rod with your bare hands! Do not bend the load rod!)
      1. Pull the load rod back a little, lift the load rod latch.
      2. Push the load rod toward the sample holder and screw the load rod into the sample holder. Do not push the sample holder off of the dovetail rail before you screw in the load rod!
      3. Push the load rod forward. Push the sample holder onto the stage.
      4. Make sure the sample holder is all the way on the stage.
      5. Unscrew the load rod and pull the load rod back. When you begin to pull the load rod, keep turning the load rod to make sure the load rod disengages from the sample holder.
      6. Pull the load rod all the way back and latch the load rod.
    6. Close Load lock
      1. Turn off the OPEN button.
      2. Turn on the CLOSE button.
      3. Turn off the CLOSE button.
      4. Turn off the PUMP button.
    7. Resume Exchange
      1. On the computer, click yes for “Have you loaded another sample?
      2. These are tall sample holders

      3. This is the STEM sample holder
    8. OBSERVE!
      1. Watch your sample move to the center of the chamber in the camera view. If it looks like your sample will hit something, hit the BREAK (stage stop) button!
    9. Unload Sample
      1. Click the LMB on the exchange icon. You do not have to lower the stage, turn off the EHT, or anything else. The stage will move to the exchange position, the EHT will turn off, and the column chamber valve will close.
      2. Check the coordinates of the stage to check if the stage is in the exchange position.
        1. Click the LMB on the Stage tab in the SEM control panel to show the coordinates of the stage.
        2. There is a file named Exchange.txt on the desktop that shows the coordinates for the exchange position.
  6. VI. Stage Movement
    1. For the SAME joystick movement, the stage may move in DIFFERENT directions depending on whether you are looking at the image from the chamber camera or the image from the SEM!
    2. Study the pictures in the table labeled “Stage movement versus Joystick Movement”!
    3. If you crash the stage into the pole piece because you forgot which way the stage moves you will not be allowed to use the Ultra60.
  7. VII. SEM Operation
    1. Electron Gun
      1. The Electron Gun should always be on. If the Electron Gun is not on, contact a staff member.
    2. EHT
      1. The exchange macro automatically sets the EHT to 5KV.
      2. You can turn on the EHT only when the chamber isolation valve is open (and the Electron Gun is on).
      3. In general, lower EHT is better. The Ultra60 can operate with an EHT of 100 Volts! You should start with an EHT of 2KV or 3KV.
      4. Below 2KV the working distance is very limited.
    3. C. Coarse/Fine
      1. You can change the sensitivity of the panel by switching to coarse mode or fine mode. You can switch modes by clicking the LMB on the window on the lower right of the screen or you can press the TAB key when the image window is in focus.
    4. Focus
    5. Aperature Alignment
      1. Use Reduced Raster.
      2. The wobble magnitude is adjustable.
      3. You want to eliminate any translation of the image (X-axis or Y-axis movement, the wobble image will always "pulsate") .
      4. Make sure image rotation is off!
    6. Stigmation
      1. Use Reduced Raster.
      2. Stigmation at less than 2Kx is not useful.
      3. Choose a “round” feature. Focus so the feature looks “round” and not stretched. Adjust the stigmation so the feature looks sharp.
      4. The correct procedure is to adjust stigmation in one axis, then the other axis, and then readjust the focus. Repeat until there is no more improvement.
    7. Scanning
      1. Noise Reduction
        1. Pixel Average
          1. This gives each pixel the longest continuous exposure to the electron beam.
        2. Line Average
          1. This gives each pixel an exposure to the electron beam shorter than Pixel Average but longer than Frame Average.
        3. Frame Average.
          1. This gives each pixel the shortest continuous exposure to the electron beam.
        4. N is the number of lines or frames that are averaged together to produce the image.
      2. Image Resolution
        1. You can choose from 512x384, 1024x768, 2048x1536, 3072x2304.
          1. You must select the resolution BEFORE you begin your scan.
      3. Scan Speed
        1. Slower usually gives better resolution but takes longer and is more sensitive to noise.
      4. Freeze
        1. Should usually be “End Frame”
      5. Integrate is the same as average except integrate freezes the image after N scans, average keeps scanning until you give the freeze command.
    8. Image Capture
      1. Adjust the SEM to the best image. If you do not take the time to adjust the image for best resolution you should not be using the Ultra60!
      2. Freeze the image.
      3. There are several ways to save the image. One way is to click the RMB on the image and click the LMB on “save as tiff”, the save window will appear.
      4. There are several important options in the save window.
        1. The file name.
        2. You can make the SEM add a number to the file name. The number will automatically increase for each image you save.
        3. The SEM can save image parameters in the tiff file header. You must specify which parameters to include! The default is NO parameters! You should include:
          1. Magnification
          2. EHT
          3. Date
          4. Signal
          5. Working Distance (WD)
      5. ALWAYS USE TIF OR PNG FORMAT! JPG is a “lossy” compression format and you will LOSE resolution if you use JPG! If TIF files are too big, use PNG. PNG is a lossless compression format. If you use JPG format you should not be using this SEM!
      6. You can create new directories for your images.
      7. There is an Icon for a drive on Grover (the MiRC web server) on the desktop. You can copy your images to this drive and download them from the MiRC web page. The easiest way to do this is to use WinRAR to create a single archive file that contains all of your images and copy the archive file to Zeiss on Grover.
  8. VIII. Problems
    1. Load lock control panel does not respond.
      1. Make sure column isolation valve is closed!
      2. Click LMB on ignore.
    2. Macro error message
    3. Load rod does not screw into sample holder when unloading sample.
      CHECK STAGE COORDINATES!!!
      If tilt angle is not zero, then:
      Click LMB on Stage on menu bar
      Click LMB on stage control
      Click LMB on set limits
      Double click LMB on T lower limit
      Enter -10 degrees.
      Close all stage control windows
      Click LMB on Exchange icon again and repeat unload procedure. CHECK STAGE COORDINATES!
    4. STAGE TOUCH! If you have a stage touch error, you MUST report this to Joel Pikarsky. We have configured the software to write a file to the MiRC server if there is a stage touch. If you get a stage touch error and you do not report it, your SEM access will be terminated with extreme prejudice.
    5. Stage freezes.
      • Try “Initialize Stage”.
      • CAUTION: You MUST watch the stage! If the stage looks like it is going to hit anything, press the stage stop button!
        •            
      • If this does not work you must contact a staff member!
    6. Stage does not go to exchange position or stage is not in exchange position when you start using the system):
      1. Click the LMB on the Exchange Icon.
        CAUTION: If you do not use the exchange macro to load/unload a sample you will get a stage touch alarm and you will have to initialize the stage!
    7. Stage still does not go to exchange position:
      1. Stage > Initialize
      2. Repeat previous step.
    8. EM Server closes (crashes):
      1. Logoff Smart SEM
      2. Login to SmartSEM
    9. Screen goes black:
      1. Check:
        1. Did this happen while you were scanning a sample?
        2. Can you switch to the chamber camera?
        3. If the answer to A is yes and B is no this is probably an L-REM failure.
      2. If you are a level zero user you must contact a staff member.
      3. If you are a level one user you will be told how to fix this.
    10. Gun Shuts down.
      1. Make sure column isolation valve is open.
      2. Turn on gun. The gun takes about 10 minutes to start.
  9. Ultra60 Parts

    10. Stage Movement versus Joystick Movement
    (when viewing SEM image)

    SEM Stage Axis

    (This is how Zeiss labels the axes!)

    Joystick Movement

    Stage Movement

    +X

    -X



    +Y


    -Y