Sii Nanotechnology Inc.

Hitachi High-tech Science Corporation

Seiko Instruments Inc

Denki Onkyo Co., Ltd.

Haruo Takahashi

Toshiaki Fujii

Yo Yamamoto

Junichi Tashiro

Ryusuke Hirose

Kouji Iwasaki

Yutaka Ikku

Isao Yagi

Masahiro Kiyohara

Yoshiki Matoba

Koichi Tamura

Kiyoshi Hasegawa

Toshiyuki Takahara

Makoto Sato

Masakatsu Hasuda

Masaki Tatsumi

Ikuko Nakatani

Provided are an X-ray inspection apparatus and an X-ray inspection method. The X-ray inspection apparatus includes: an X-ray source; a sample moving mechanism; the TDI sensor; and a TDI computing unit. The TDI computing unit includes a data transfer unit configured to transfer, to an outside, data of accumulated charges obtained by accumulating and transferring the charges, and has a function of setting in advance, as a determination region, a plurality of columns of line sensors with which the sample is detectable, and of detecting the sample in the determination region. The data transfer unit is configured to set, as detecting rows, rows of the pixels with which the sample has been detected in the determination region and rows around the rows, and transfer, to the outside, the data of accumulated charges only for pixels in the detecting rows.

X-ray inspection apparatus and x-ray inspection method

The present invention provides an X-ray generator including an X-ray tuberadiating primary X-rays Xto a specimen S, a housingaccommodating the X-ray tube, an X-ray radiation area controllerlimiting the radiation area of the primary X-rays Xfrom the X-ray tubeto the specimen S, and a device holderholding the X-ray radiation area controllerwith respect to the housing. The X-ray tube includes a case, an electron ray sourcegenerating electron rays, and a target unithaving a base fixed to the case and receiving electron rays through a protruding free end. The device holder has a fixed-basefixed to the housing, directly under the base of the target unit, and a supporting extensionextending from the fixed-base in the protrusion direction of the target unit and supporting the X-ray radiation area controller.

X-ray generator and fluorescent X-ray analyzer

An X-ray fluorescence analyzer includes: a measurement device having: an X-ray source that emits an X-ray; an irradiation area restricting member that restricts an area of a measurement sample to be irradiated with the X-ray as a primary X-ray; and a detector that detects a secondary X-ray generated from the measurement sample. The analyzer further includes: a sample stage that holds and moves the measurement sample between a measurement position at which the measurement sample is irradiated with the primary X-ray to detect the secondary X-ray by the detector and a first retracted position at which the measurement sample is retracted from the measurement position; and a calibration sample moving mechanism that holds a calibration sample for calibrating the measurement device and moves the calibration sample between the measurement position and a second retracted position at which the calibration sample is retracted from the measurement position.

X-ray fluorescence analyzer

An X-ray fluorescence spectrometer includes: an X-ray source which irradiates a sample with primary X-rays; a light condensing device which condenses the primary X-rays to reduce an irradiation area on the sample; a detector which detects fluorescent X-rays produced from the sample irradiated with the primary X-rays; a housing which accommodates the X-ray source and the light condensing device; a temperature sensor which is disposed in at least one of the X-ray source and the periphery of the X-ray source; at least one external-air fan which is disposed on the housing, and which can exchange internal air with external air; and a control section which drives the external-air fan based on temperature information detected by the temperature sensor, to adjust the ambient temperature around the X-ray source to a constant temperature.

X-ray fluorescence spectrometer comprising a temperature sensor, two external-air fans, and a circulation fan

There is provided a composite charged particle beam apparatus, in which a first rotation axis of a rotatable stage intersects a beam irradiation axis of a FIB column and a beam irradiation axis of an SEM so as to be substantially perpendicular thereto, respectively, at a sample observing position, the rotatable stage is provided with a supporting member which can be rotated with respect to the first rotation axis, and the supporting member is connected to a movement mechanism which can dispose the sample at the sample observing position.

Composite charged particle beam apparatus and sample processing and observing method

A cross-section processing and observation method includes: forming a first cross section in a sample by etching processing using a focused ion beam; obtaining image information of the first cross section by irradiating the focused ion beam to the first cross section; forming a second cross section by performing etching processing on the first cross section; obtaining image information of the second cross section by irradiating the focused ion beam to an irradiation region including the second cross section; displaying image information of a part of a display region of the irradiation region from the image information of the second cross section; displaying the image information of the first cross section by superimposing it on the image information being displayed; and moving the display region within the irradiation region. Observation images in which display regions are aligned can be obtained while reducing damage to the sample.

Method and apparatus for cross-section processing and observation

A sample preparing device has a sample stage that supports a sample and undergoes rotation about a first rotation axis to bring a preselected direction of the sample piece into coincidence with an intersection line between a first plane formed by a surface of the sample piece and a second plane. A manipulator holds sample piece of the sample and undergoes rotation about a second rotation axis independently of the sample stage to rotate the sample piece to a preselected position in the state in which the preselected direction of the sample piece coincides with the intersection line. The manipulator is disposed relative to the sample stage so that an angle between the second rotation axis and the surface of the sample is in the range of 0&#xb0; to 45&#xb0;. The second plane corresponds to a plane obtained by rotating around the second rotation axis a line segment which is vertical to the surface of the sample and of which one end corresponds to an intersection between the surface of the sample and the second rotation axis.

Sample preparing device and sample posture shifting method

An apparatus is provided that precisely conduct ion beam etching to a sample having the properties of which easily change by electron beam irradiation with no loss of ease of operation and throughput. An apparatus includes an ion beam lens barrel and an electron beam lens barrel, which can observe or measure the conditions of a sample with an electron beam in the process of etching with an ion beam, wherein first, an observation image is obtained that includes the entire process area formed by secondary signals generated by an electron beam, secondly, an irradiation permit area and an irradiation inhibit area are defined in the observation image, and thirdly, electron beam irradiation is restricted only to the irradiation permit area.

Composite charged particle beam apparatus, method of processing a sample and method of preparing a sample for a transmission electron microscope using the same

The apparatus for working and observing samples comprises a sample plate on which a sample is to be placed; a first ion beam lens barrel capable of irradiating a first ion beam over a whole predetermined irradiation range at one time; a mask that can be arranged between the sample plate and the first ion beam lens barrel, and shields part of the first ion beam; mask-moving means capable of moving the mask; a charged particle beam lens barrel capable of scanning a focused beam of charged particles in the range irradiated with the first ion beam; and detection means capable of detecting a secondarily generated substance.

Apparatus for working and observing samples and method of working and observing cross sections

There is provided a method of arranging, as a composite charged-particle beam system, a gas ion beam apparatus, an FIB and an SEM in order to efficiently prepare a TEM sample. The composite charged-particle beam system includes an FIB lens-barrel, an SEM lens-barrel, a gas ion beam lens-barrel, and a rotary sample stagehaving an eucentric tilt mechanism and a rotating shaftorthogonal to an eucentric tilt axis. In the composite charged-particle beam system, an arrangement is made such that a focused ion beam, an electron beamand a gas ion beamintersect at a single point, an axis of the FIB lens-barreland an axis of the SEM lens barrelare orthogonal to the eucentric tilt axis, respectively, and the axis of the FIB lens-barrel, an axis of the gas ion beam lens-barreland the eucentric tilt axisare in one plane.

Composite charged-particle beam system

A processing apparatus uses a focused charged particle beam to process a micro sample that is supported on a micro mount part. The micro mount part is supported on a micro sample stage and locally cooled by a cooling unit. The micro mount part is thermally independent of the micro sample stage and, due to its small size, can be cooled rapidly by the cooling unit.

Processing apparatus using focused charged particle beam

To include a focused ion beam apparatus fabricating a sliced specimen by processing a specimen as well as observing the sliced specimen, a scanning electron microscope observing the slice specimen, a gas-ion beam irradiation apparatus performing finishing processing by irradiating a gas-ion beam onto a surface of the sliced specimen, a specimen stage on which the sliced specimen is fixed and having at least one or more rotation axis, a specimen posture recognition means recognizing positional relation of the sliced specimen with respect to the specimen stage and a specimen stage control means controlling the specimen stage based on a specimen posture recognized by the posture recognition means and an installation angle of the gas-ion beam irradiation apparatus in order to allow an incident angle of the gas-ion beam with respect to the obverse or the reverse of the sliced specimen to be a desired value.

Charged particle beam apparatus

In order provide an energy dispersive X-ray analyzer that can perform efficient measurement by optimizing signal processing time of an X-ray counting section, an energy dispersive X-ray analyzer is provided with an energy dispersive X-ray detector, an X-ray counting section for analyzing the signal from the energy dispersive X-ray detector and generating a frequency distribution for each energy level, namely an energy spectrum, and a data control section for performing data processing, user interface etc. The X-ray counting section of the energy dispersive X-ray analyzer has signal processing methods with different processing times for a single X-ray input, and a function for selecting which method result to make use of using input X-ray energy.

Energy dispersive X-ray analyzer

Display is made of the spectrums of the fluorescent X-rays by using the ordinate axis as representing the square root of a fluorescent X-ray intensity and using the abscissa axis as representing the energy of the fluorescent X-rays.

Fluorescent X-ray spectroscope

The center of a band-shaped region on a sample is searched by first coarsely scanning a region of the sample, calculating a tentative center of the sample coarsely from scanning result, collecting data with reference to the tentative center, calculating the center of gravity from the result, and making a correction for raising the precision of the center of gravity determination.

Growing community of inventors

Chiba, Japan

Haruo Takahashi