Ion Milling

Conventional mechanical polishing or cutting techniques on soft, composite materials apply significant lateral sheer forces to the sample and often result in cross-section surface artefacts such as scratches, smearing, wash-out of softer materials, delamination and other damage. In contrast, ion beam sputtering is a stress-free physical process whereby atoms are ejected from a target material due to bombardment of the target by energized particles. Any materials, like powder, printing paper, fibre, polymer, IC package, BGA ball etc.