Applications of the Helium Ion Microscope

The need for more precise image information of samples coming from fields such as materials analysis, semiconductor processing, and life sciences have pushed the boundaries of charged particle microscopy. A key limitation for the microscope maker in rising to these challenges lies in the relative technical maturity of source technology. Very few changes in sources have occurred in the last generations of tools available to the microscopist, while extensive efforts have been put into reducing aberrations that blur the probe—with their concomitant complexity and cost. Such efforts, representing incremental extensions of these technologies, cannot on their own address many of the emerging needs in nanotechnology. In addition, there are many challenges in the imaging of materials such as polymers and biological specimens that cannot be solved through resolution improvements but rather require different beam sample interaction dynamics. The helium ion microscope (HIM) is a breakthrough technology suited to such challenges.