Secondary ion mass spectrometry/digital imaging for the three-dimensional chemical characterization of solid state devices

The use of a microcomputer based digital imaging system for automated acquisition of secondary ion image depth profiles is demonstrated. By combining the ion microscope’s capabilities of elemental imaging and depth profiling, image depth profiling provides information on the three-dimensional distribution of elements within microvolumes of the near surface region of solids. The technique is used for the three-dimensional multielement characterization of a solid state device (a npn bipolar transistor). Several methods for processing and displaying the multidimensional data are presented.