Introducing an Easier and Reliable Method to Prepare and Transfer Fibbed Lamellas
Nanotalks with Dr. Hugo Perez from DENSsolutions
Timeline
Overview to the FIB (2:28)
Traditional problems & risks (3:08)
New technique – 45° stub (4:18)
Step 1 Tilt for 52° (5:10)
What is a GIS needle? (5:51)
Depositing platinum and is it needed (7:20)
Step 2 Milling trenches (9:16)
Step 3 Undercutting lamella (11:36)
Step 4 Pre thining (13:00)
Step 5 Lift out (13.25)
Step 6 Transfer lamella to Nano-Chip (14:17)
Step 7 Final thining (18:27)
Step 8 Rotate Nano-Chip (22:49)
Complete FIB Workflow with commentary (3:00)
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to our collaborators on this project.
Dr. Hugo Perez
Microsystems Engineer – DENSsolutions
Topic: Introducing an Easier and Reliable Method to Prepare and Transfer Fibbed Lamellas
Introducing an Easier and Reliable Method to Prepare and Transfer Fibbed Lamellas
One of the most crucial applications of a focused ion beam (FIB) is preparing and transferring lamellae for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigations. Typically, thin films below 500nm require an induced platinum deposition step in order to protect the material from getting attacked by the ion beam bombardment. However, such deposition results in further challenges that make the sample preparation a very time-consuming and risky procedure. Lamellae must be uniformly thin (ideally below 50-60nm) to become electron transparent. If the platinum is facing the ion beam during the final thinning, there is a high risk of dispersing it across the region of interest, resulting in unwanted contamination. Additionally, working with such thin samples increases the risk of losing them during intermediate venting steps (i.e. to rotate the sample 90 degrees such that it could be placed on the chip parallel to its surface). Therefore, it would be ideal to have the final thinning done once a pre-thinned lamella has been placed on top of the chip of interest, on a flat and secure surface. This Nanotalk gives a quick introduction to a new method, which aims at decreasing the preparation time, while diminishing the risks involved during thinning and transferring of the lamella.
Prior to finishing his PhD at TU-Delft (Cum Laude), Dr. Hugo Perez obtained a master degree in Nanotechnology from Chalmers University (Sweden) and another master degree in Molecular Bioengineering from TU-Dresden (Germany). Additionally, he combined his PhD research (thesis “Development of Nanotools for Applications in (sub-)Femtofluidics and Graphene Technologies”) with studies on a third master degree in business administration, MBA, at the University of Cumbria/RKC Zurich (UK/Switzerland). Currently he is the Microsystems Manager at DENSsolutions.
| 2014-Present | Microsystems Manager, DENSsolutions, Delft, Netherlands |
| 2010-2014 | Ph.D. in Micro and Nanoengineering (Cum Laude), TU-Delft, Netherlands |
| 2009-2010 | MSc in Nanotechnology, Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden |
| 2008-2009 | MSc in Molecular Bioengineering, TU-Dresden, Dresden, Germany |
| 2007-2008 | Automation Engineer, Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua, Mexico |
| 2003-2007 | BSc in Mechatronics Engineering (Cum Laude), Monterrey Institute of Technology, Mexico |
| Héctor Hugo Pérez Garza*, Eric Walter Kievit, Gregory F. Schneider and Urs Staufer. “Controlled, Reversible and Non-Destructive Generation of Uniaxial Extreme Strains (>10\%) in Graphene”. Nano Letters, 14(7), pp.4107-4113, 2014. |
| Héctor Hugo Pérez Garza*, Eric Walter Kievit, Gregory F. Schneider and Urs Staufer. “Highly strained graphene samples of varying thicknesses and comparison of their behavior”. Nanotechnology, 25, 465708 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/25/46/465708, 2014. |
| Héctor Hugo Pérez Garza*, Murali Krishna Ghatkesar* and Urs Staufer. “Hollow AFM Cantilever Pipette”, Microelectronic Engineering, v.124, pp.22-25, 2014. |
| Héctor Hugo Pérez Garza*, Murali Krishna Ghatkesar* and Urs Staufer. “Combined AFM-Nanopipette Cartridge System for Actively Dispensing Femtolitre Droplets”, J. Micro-Bio Robotics, (8:1), pp.33-40, 2013. |
| Héctor Hugo Pérez Garza*, Murali Krishna Ghatkesar* and Urs Staufer. “Aspiration through hollow cantilever-based nanopipette by means of evaporation”, Micro Nano Letters, (8:11), pp.758-761, 2013. |
| Héctor Hugo Pérez Garza*, Murali Krishna Ghatkesar* and Urs Staufer. “Atomic Force Microscope-FemtoPipette (AFM-FP) for weighing, imaging, dispensing and aspirating femtoliter volumes”. Submitted to Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, 2014. |
Dr. Hugo Perez
Email: hugo.perez@denssolutions.com
Phone: +31 (0) 6 53 82 0319
Website: www.DENSsolutions.com