Millimeter length micromachining using a heavy ion nuclear microprobe with standard magnetic scanning

In order to increase the scanning length of our microprobe, we have developed an irradiation procedure suitable for use in any nuclear microprobe, extending at least up to 400% the length of our heavy ion direct writing facility using standard magnetic exploration. Although this method is limited to patterns of a few millimeters in only one direction, it is useful for the manufacture of curved waveguides, optical devices such Mach-Zehnder modulators, directional couplers as well as channels for micro-fluidic applications. As an example, this technique was applied to the fabrication of 3 mm 3D-Mach-Zehnder modulators in lithium niobate with short Y input/output branches and long shaped parallel-capacitor control electrodes. To extend and improve the quality of the machined structures we developed new scanning control software in LabView™ platform. The new code supports an external dose normalization, electrostatic beam blanking and is capable of scanning figures at 16 bit resolution using a National Instruments™ PCI-6731 High-Speed I/O card. A deep and vertical micromachining process using swift 35Cl ions 70 MeV bombarding energy and direct write patterning was performed on LiNbO3, a material which exhibits a strong natural anisotropy to conventional etching. The micromachined structures show the feasibility of this method for manufacturing micro-fluidic channels as well.