Thermo Scientific Helios 5 DualBeam scanning electron microscope

Thermo Fisher Scientific has released its latest focused ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) for nanometre-scale materials characterisation and analysis, the Thermo Scientific Helios 5 DualBeam microscope. The FIB-SEM will be available in HX, FX and UX configurations, which address a broad range of industrial and research challenges. The FX and HX configurations are particularly focused on the needs of semiconductor manufacturers, fabless chip designers, materials researchers and analytical labs.

The microscope addresses the increasing number of semiconductor technological challenges, including the need to develop products using smaller geometries, 3D structures, more materials and higher volumes of analytical samples for yield enhancement and root cause analysis. The feedback systems and neural network-based software in the microscope deliver productivity, repeatability and ease of use.

When compared to the previous generation, the Helios 5 microscope provides greater stability and ease of use, which can help reduce the operator expertise needed. Operator training may be reduced from months to days and the device designed to enable all operators to achieve consistent, repeatable results on a wide variety of applications. These productivity improvements produce a higher volume of high-quality samples, allowing customers to accelerate both their yield ramp and excursion resolution.

Other improvements include AutoTEM 5, monitoring hardware, smart alignments and process readiness software enhancements. All are designed to ensure the system is in the optimal operating state for either manual or automated workflows and can reduce the alignment time from tens of minutes to seconds, increasing system productivity by at least 15%, compared to prior Helios microscope offerings. The Helios 5 TEM and Atom Probe sample preparation software can also increase access to advanced atomic-scale structural and compositional information and enable high-quality subsurface and 3D information at the nanometre scale with precise targeting of the region of interest.