Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Medical Corporation

Atsuko Takafuji

Hiroyuki Shinada

Yasutsugu Usami

Katsuya Sugiyama

Yutaka Kaneko

Mari Nozoe

Katsuhiro Kuroda

Takashi Hiroi

Yusuke Yajima

Shunji Maeda

Hideo Todokoro

Mitsugu Sato

Maki Tanaka

Haruo Yoda

Aritoshi Sugimoto

Mikio Ichihashi

Satoru Fukuhara

Hiroshi Toyama

Yuko Iwabuchi

Hiroyoshi Mori

Masahiro Watanabe

Hisaya Murakoshi

Chie Shishido

Hitoshi Kubota

Takanori Ninomiya

Asahiro Kuni

Yasuhiro Gunji

Kimiaki Ando

Kazushi Yoshimura

Hiroshi Tooyama

Tadao Ino

Kaoru Umemura

Masaki Hasegawa

Hiroshi Makino

Yuko Sasaki

Kenji Tanimoto

Taku Ninomiya

Hideaki Doi

Yuji Kasai

Masami Iizuka

Kouichi Hayakawa

Masayoshi Takeda

Hiroyuki Shinoda

Hiroyuki Suzuki

Shuji Sugiyama

Ichiro Miura

Masatoshi Nishimura

Keiji Koyanagi

Fumio Noda

Miyako Matsui

Koichi Koike

The inspection apparatus disclosed generates an electron beam, an acceleration electrode accelerates the electron beam, a convergence lens converges the electron beam, an electron beam deflector scans the beam over a sample, an objective lens converges the electron beam on the sample, a detector located between the sample and the objective lens detects charged particles emitted from the sample, a power supply applies a retarding voltage to the sample for decelerating the electron beam to the sample, an electrode is disposed between the objective lens and the sample, and a voltage is generated between the sample and the electrode by said electrode, the voltage being determined depending on the sample. The apparatus solves problems encountered in conventional inspection systems.

Method and an apparatus of an inspection system using an electron beam

Problems encountered in the conventional inspection method and the conventional apparatus adopting the method are solved by the present invention using an electron beam by providing a novel inspection method and an inspection apparatus adopting the novel method which are capable of increasing the speed to scan a specimen such as a semiconductor wafer. The inspection novel method provided by the present invention comprises the steps of: generating an electron beam; converging the generated electron beam on a specimen by using an objective lens; scanning the specimen by using the converged electron beam; continuously moving the specimen during scanning; detecting charged particles emanating from the specimen at a location between the specimen and the objective lens and converting the detected charged particles into an electrical signal; storing picture information conveyed by the electrical signal; comparing a picture with another by using the stored picture information; and detecting a defect of the specimen.

Method and apparatus of an inspection system using an electron beam

A circuit pattern inspection method and an apparatus therefore, in which the whole of a portion to be inspected of a sample to be inspected is made to be in a predetermined changed state, the portion to be inspected is irradiated with an image-forming high-density electron beam while scanning the electron beam, secondary charged particles are detected at a portion irradiated with the electron beam after a predetermined period of time from an instance when the electron beam is irradiated, an image is formed on the basis of the thus detected secondary charged particle signal, and the portion to be inspected is inspected by using the thus formed image.

Method and apparatus for inspecting integrated circuit pattern

A pattern inspection method and apparatus in which a charged particle beam is irradiated onto a surface of a specimen on which a pattern is formed, plural sensors simultaneously detect secondary particles emanated from the surface of the specimen by the irradiation, signals outputted from each sensor of the plural sensors which simultaneously detect the secondary particles are added, an image of the surface of the specimen on which the pattern is obtained from the added signals, and the image is processed to detect a defect of the pattern.

Pattern inspection method and apparatus using electron beam

A circuit pattern inspection method and an apparatus therefor, in which the whole of a portion to be inspected of a sample to be inspected is made to be in a predetermined charged state, the portion to be inspected is irradiated with an image-forming high-density electron beam while scanning the electron beam, secondary charged particles are detected at a portion irradiated with the electron beam after a predetermined period of time from an instance when the electron beam is irradiated, an image is formed on the basis of the thus detected secondary charged particle signal, and the portion to be inspected is inspected by using the thus formed image.

An apparatus for inspecting a sample using a scanning electron microscope includes a sample stage, a first electron-optical system to scan an electron beam of a first beam current on the sample, a second electron-optical system to scan an electron beam of a second beam current smaller than the first beam current on the sample, a mechanism to move the sample stage, a detector provided in each of the first and second electron-optical systems to detect a secondary electron. The first electron-optical system is operable in a first mode and the second electron-optical system is operable in a second mode with higher resolution than that of the first mode. In the first mode, the sample is observed while the sample stage is moved continuously, and in the second mode, the sample is observed by detecting a secondary electron using the detector while the sample stage is held stationary.

Method of inspecting a circuit pattern and inspecting instrument

According to the invention, techniques for automatically adjusting for astigmatism in a charged particle beam apparatus. Embodiments according to the present invention can provide a charged particle beam apparatus and an automatic astigmatism adjustment methods capable of automatically correcting astigmatism and a focal point in a relatively short period of time by finding a plurality of astigmatism correction quantities and a focal point correction quantity in a single operation from a relatively small number of 2 dimensional images. Specific embodiments can perform such automatic focusing while minimizing damages inflicted on subject samples. Embodiments include, among others, a charged particle optical system for carrying out an inspection, a measurement and a fabrication with a relatively high degree of accuracy by using a charged particle beam.

Charged particle beam apparatus and automatic astigmatism adjustment method

An electron beam (area beam) having a fixed area is irradiated onto the surface of a semiconductor sample, and reflected electrons from the sample surface are imaged by the imaging lens, and images of a plurality of regions of the surface of the semiconductor sample are obtained and stored in the image storage unit, and the stored images of the plurality of regions are compared with each other, and the existence of a defect in the regions and the defect position are measured. By doing this, in an apparatus for testing a pattern defect of the same design, foreign substances, and residuals on a wafer in the manufacturing process of a semiconductor apparatus by an electron beam, speeding-up of the test can be realized.

Patterned wafer inspection method and apparatus therefor

A circuit pattern inspecting instrument includes an electron-optical system for irradiating an electron beam on a sample, an electron beam deflector, a detector for detecting secondary charged particles from the sample, and a mode setting unit for switching between a first mode and a second mode. An electron beam current is larger in the first mode than in the second mode, and an electron beam scanning speed is higher in the first mode than in the second mode. The circuit pattern inspecting instrument is configured so that first the sample is observed in the first mode, then a particular position on the sample is selected based on image data produced by an output of the detector in the first mode, and then the particular position on the sample is observed in the second mode.

To make possible the in-line inspection of a pattern of an insulating material. A patterned waferformed with a pattern by a resist film is placed on a specimen tableof a patterned wafer inspection apparatusin opposed relation to a SEM. An electron beamof a large current is emitted from an electron gunand the pattern of the patterned wafer is scanned only once at a high scanning rate. The secondary electrons generated by this scanning from the patterned wafer are detected by a secondary electron detectorthereby to acquire an electron beam image. Using this electron beam image, the comparative inspection is conducted on the patterned wafer through an arithmetic operation unitand a defect determining unitSince an electron beam image of high contrast can be obtained by scanning an electron beam only once, a patterned wafer inspection method using a SEM can be implemented in the IC fabrication method.

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Tokyo, Japan

Atsuko Takafuji