Hitachi, Ltd.

Renesas Technology Corp.

Hitachi Ulsi Systems Co., Ltd.

Akira Shimase

Satoshi Haraichi

Hiroshi Yamaguchi

Fumikazu Itoh

Junzou Azuma

Mikio Hongo

Tateoki Miyauchi

Takahiko Takahashi

Michinobu Mizumura

Yuichi Hamamura

Tohru Ishitani

Hidemi Koike

Keiya Saito

Yasuhiro Koizumi

Takashi Kamimura

Yuuichi Hamamura

Norimasa Nishimura

Yoshimi Kawanami

Kaoru Umemura

Hifumi Tamura

Yuuichi Madokoro

Katsuro Mizukoshi

Satoshi Tomimatsu

Akio Hasebe

Toshio Yamada

Hideyuki Matsumoto

Aritoshi Sugimoto

Asahiro Kuni

Shinji Kuniyoshi

Susumu Aiuchi

Yasuhiro Motoyama

Isamu Sekihara

Masayoshi Okamoto

Junzo Azuma

Shingo Yorisaki

Shunji Maeda

Masahiro Watanabe

Toshihiko Nakata

Hitoshi Kubota

Yoshinori Nakayama

Hiroshi Okano

Yukio Honda

Sumio Hosaka

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Mikio Ichihashi

Hiroshi Miyai

Ryohei Satoh

Takeshi Kimura

Shigeyuki Hosoki

Nobuyuki Akiyama

Taku Ninomiya

Mitsuyoshi Koizumi

Masakazu Ichikawa

Hiroya Koshishiba

Hironobu Matsui

Yoshimasa Kondo

Funikazu Itoh

Shuzo Sano

Shiji Okazaki

Emiko Uda

Junichi Mori

Electrical testing is to be performed on a semiconductor integrated circuit device which the test pads formed. To facilitate such testing, the method of manufacture of the semiconductor integrated circuit device employs a probe card which has two or more contact terminals which can contact two or more electrodes. This probe card includes, in opposition to a wiring substrate of the semiconductor integrated circuit device in which a first wiring is formed, a first sheet having two or more contact terminals to contact the two or more electrodes; a second wiring electrically connected to the two or more contact terminals and the first wiring; and first dummy wirings which are near the region of formation of the two or more contact terminals, are arranged to a non-forming region of the second wiring, and do not participate in signal transfer.

Manufacturing method of semiconductor integrated circuit device and probe card

A probe driving method and a probe apparatus for bringing a probe into contact with the surface of a sample in a safe and efficient manner by monitoring the probe height. Information about the height of the probe from the sample surface is obtained by detecting a probe shadow () appearing immediately before the probe contacts the sample, or based on a change in relative positions of a probe image and a sample image that are formed as an ion beam is irradiated diagonally.

Probe driving method, and probe apparatus

A probe driving method and a probe apparatus for bringing a probe into contact with the surface of a sample in a safe and efficient manner by monitoring the probe height. Information about the height of the probe from the sample surface is obtained by detecting a probe shadow appearing immediately before the probe contacts the sample, or based on a change in relative positions of a probe image and a sample image that are formed as an ion beam is irradiated diagonally.

Herein disclosed are a variety of techniques relating to the wiring and logic corrections on a chip by making use of the focused ion beam (which is shortly referred to as &ldquo;FIB&rdquo;) or the laser selection metal CVD. The time periods for the wiring corrections and for debugging and developing an electronic system are shortened by making use of the processing characteristics of the FIB. Illustratively, a hole is bored in an insulating film above a portion of a wiring which is to be connected to another wiring by means of a focused ion beam. The inside of the hole and a predetermined region on the insulating film are irradiated with either a laser beam or an ion beam in a metal compound gas to deposit metal in the hole and on said region and a connecting wiring is formed by means of optically pumped CVD. The present invention also relates to an IC or VLSI structure having a trial cutting region, at test etching region and an auxiliary wiring or pad, suitable for the application of such defect correction and circuit change, as well as a method of making same, a designing method using such technique, and a focused ion beam system and other systems for use in those methods.

Method of making wiring and logic corrections on a semiconductor device by use of focused ion beams

In an electron particle machine for observing, inspecting, processing or analyzing a semiconductor wafer as a substrate or a sample, a light source is installed in a preparation chamber. A chucking stage for chucking the semiconductor wafer with a chuck using static electricity is provided with parts for connecting to earth such that they are in contact with the chucked semiconductor wafer. After the chuck using static electricity is released after observation, inspection, process or analysis, a surface of the semiconductor wafer and the parts for connecting to earth are irradiated with light from the light source. This provides conductivity to the surface of the semiconductor wafer, so that charge accumulated on the semiconductor wafer is removed from the surface through the parts for connecting to earth.

Sample processing apparatus and method for removing charge on sample through light irradiation

In a method for observing or processing and analyzing the surface of a sample by irradiating a charged beam on the sample covered at least partially by an insulator film, an ultraviolet light is irradiated possibly as pulse on the sample (substrate), thereby transforming the insulator into a conductive material due to the photoconductivity effect, thereby transforming the surface of the sample (substrate) into a conductive material, so that charged particles are grounded from a grounded portion in order to prevent the charged beam from being repulsed due to charged particles of the irradiated charged beam accumulated in the insulator formed on the surface of the sample (substrate).

Method and apparatus for observing or processing and analyzing using a charged beam

A method and an apparatus for inspecting or measuring a sample based on charged-particle beam are provided to relieve charge-up of the sample, so that high-quality electron image is obtained. A UV light irradiation optical system is controlled by an irradiation controller, scanning of the charged-particle beam is controlled by a scanning controller, and the irradiation controller and the scanning controller are controlled by a general controller. They are mutually synchronized, and a signal from an electron detector is imaged by an image slicing circuit and an image processing circuit.

Method and apparatus for inspecting or measuring a sample based on charged-particle beam imaging, and a charged-particle beam apparatus

A pattern forming method using an improved charged particle beam process, and a charged particle beam processing system prevent effectively the corrosion of a workpiece by a reactive gas adsorbed by and adhering to the surface of the workpiece when the workpiece is taken out into the atmosphere after pattern formation. The charged particle beam processing system comprises, as principal components, an ion beam chamber provided with an ion beam optical system, a processing chamber provided with a gas nozzle through which a reactive gas is blown against a workpiece, a load-lock chamber connected through a gate valve to the processing chamber. The load-lock chamber is capable of producing a plasma of an inert gas for processing the surface of the workpiece by sputtering. The workpiece is returned to the load-lock chamber after a pattern has been formed thereon in the processing chamber by reactive processing including irradiating the surface of the workpiece with a charged particle beam in an environment of the reactive gas, and the workpiece is subjected to a plasma process to remove the reactive gas adsorbed by the workpiece during pattern formation and adhering to the workpiece.

Pattern forming method using charged particle beam process and charged particle beam processing system

A secondary charged particle image acquisition method and its apparatus for detecting a secondary charged particle image. The method includes the steps of irradiating a surface of a specimen with a focused charged particle beam and detecting a secondary charged particle emanated from the surface of the specimen, obtaining a secondary charged particle image based on the detected secondary charged particle, irradiating a positive ion beam on the surface of the specimen where the focused charged particle beam is irradiated and inducing a conductive layer on the surface of the specimen by the irradiation of the positive ion beam and diffusing an electric charge on the surface of the conductive layer.

Method and its apparatus for detecting a secondary electron beam image and a method and its apparatus for processing by using focused charged particle beam

A pattern forming method using an improved charged particle beam process, and a charged particle beam processing system prevent effectively the corrosion of a workpiece by a reactive gas adsorbed by and adhering to the surface of the workpiece when the workpiece is taken out into the atmosphere after pattern formation. The charged particle beam processing system comprises, as principal components, an ion beam chamber provided with an ion beam optical system, a processing chamber (18) provided with a gas nozzle through which a reactive gas is blown against a workpiece, a load-lock chamber connected through a gate valve to the processing chamber. The load-lock chamber is capable of producing a plasma of an inert gas for processing the surface of the workpiece by sputtering. The workpiece is returned to the load-lock chamber after a pattern has been formed thereon in the processing chamber by reactive processing including irradiating the surface of the workpiece with a charged particle beam in an environment of the reactive gas, and the workpiece is subjected to a plasma process to remove the reactive gas adsorbed by the workpiece during pattern formation and adhering to the workpiece.

Pattern forming method using charged particle beam process and charged

A charged particle beam milling system which is designed in such a way that a milling end point is judged to stop the milling on the basis of a change in the magnitude of secondary ion signals generated when milling an electronic device such as an LSI having a multi-wiring layer structure, in which a wiring layer and an insulating layer are laminated, using a charged particle beam.

Method and system for judging milling end point for use in charged

An IC wiring connecting method for interconnecting conductive lines of the same wiring plane of an IC chip for correcting the wiring, for interconnecting conductive lines of different wiring lanes of a multilayer IC chip at the same position, or for connecting a conductive line of a lower wiring plane of a multilayer IC chip to a conductive line formed at a separate position on the same multilayer IC chip. The insulating film or films covering conductive lines to be interconnected are processed by an energy beam such as a concentrated ion beam to form holes so as to expose the respective parts of the conductive lines where the conductive lines are to be interconnected, then a metal is deposited over the surfaces of the holes and an area interconnecting the holes by irradiating the surfaces of the holes and the area by an energy beam or a concentrated ion beam in an atmosphere of a gaseous organic metal compound to form a conductive metal film electrically interconnecting the conductive lines. Also provided is an apparatus for carrying out the IC wiring connecting method, which comprises, as essential components, an ion beam material processing system, an insulating film forming system such as a laser induced CVD unit, a conductive film forming system, and an insulating film etching system.

IC wiring connecting method using focused energy beams

A processing method using a plasma ion source for generating a focused ion beam, characterized by covering, with an insulator, an inner wall of a plasma holding vessel excluding a reference electrode for applying a voltage to a plasma and an ion extraction electrode for extracting ions from the plasma, and employing means of continuously controlling the absolute value of an ion beam current in a range of from 1 to 10 .mu.A by changing the absolute value of an ion extraction voltage applied between the reference electrode and the ion extraction electrode in a range of from 0 to 100 V; and an apparatus for carrying out the processing method. This is advantageous in stabilizing the ion beam current and in preventing the ion beam from being made dim even when the current value of the ion beam is changed.

Processing method and apparatus using focused ion beam generating means

A processing method and apparatus using a focused energy beam for conducting local energy beam processing in a focused energy beam irradiating area by irradiating a sample with a focused energy beam such as an ion beam or an electron beam in an etching gas atmosphere. As the etching gas, a mixed gas different in composition from any conventional one is employed and the gas is uniformly supplied to an etching area and at least one of the components of such a mixed gas is a spontaneous reactive gas for use in etching the sample spontaneously and isotropically. With this arrangement, it is possible to subject to local etching a material for which the local etching has been impossible to provide since a single etching gas causes a reaction too fierce or causes almost nearly no reaction.

Processing method and apparatus using focused energy beam

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Yokosuka, Japan

Akira Shimase