Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi High-tech Corporation

Hisaya Murakoshi

Masaki Hasegawa

Hiroyuki Shinada

Hiroshi Makino

Mari Nozoe

Atsuko Takafuji

Hideo Todokoro

Mikio Ichihashi

Noriyuki Kaneoka

Katsunori Onuki

Tomohiko Ogata

Kaoru Umemura

Yusuke Yajima

Katsuhiro Kuroda

Kenji Tanimoto

Yutaka Kaneko

Takanori Ninomiya

Yasutsugu Usami

Yuko Sasaki

Taku Ninomiya

Katsuya Sugiyama

Yuji Kasai

Hideyuki Kazumi

Minoru Yamazaki

Akira Ikegami

Satoru Fukuhara

Koichiro Takeuchi

Takashi Ichimura

Hisao Nitta

Boklae Cho

Yoshihiro Anan

Shinichi Kato

Hiroyuki Ito

Kenichi Yamamoto

Takuya Aoyagi

Tadashi Fujieda

Shigeto Isakozawa

Yasuhiro Mitsui

Takashi Onishi

Masahide Okumura

Tatsuya Miyake

Zhaohui Cheng

Takashi Naitou

Hiroshi Kakibayashi

Takashi Irie

Keiichi Kanehori

Shunichi Watanabe

Yuji Sato

Hikaru Koyama

Hidekazu Okuhira

Jiro Tokita

Minoru Kaneda

Shigemitsu Seitoh

Shigeru Kokubo

Nobuyuki Sonobe

In an electron beam device provided with two columns including an irradiation optical system and an imaging optical system, a photoelectron image for use in adjusting the irradiation optical system is made sharper. The electron beam device includes: an irradiation optical system which irradiates a sample placed on a stage with an electron beam; a light irradiation unitwhich irradiates the sample with light containing ultraviolet rays; a sample voltage control unitwhich applies a negative voltage to the sample so that, before the electron beam reaches the sample, the electron orbit inverts; and an imaging optical system which acquires a mirror electron image by forming an image of mirror electrons reflected by application of the negative voltage. In the electron beam device, the imaging optical system includes a sensorwhich obtains a mirror electron image and a stray light suppression partwhich is provided between the sensor and the stageand which suppresses reaching the sensor of the light emitted from the light irradiation unit.

Electron beam device

In order to optimize defect contrast in a charged particle beam device that inverts charged particles directly above a sample and observes the electrons, this charged particle beam device is provided with a charged particle source, an electron gun control device which applies a first voltage to the charged particle source, a substrate voltage control device which applies a second voltage to a sample, an image forming optical system which includes an imaging lens for imaging charged particles incident from the direction of the sample, a detector which includes a camera for detecting the charged particles, and an image processing device which processes the detected signal, wherein the imaging optical system is configured so as not to image secondary electrons emitted from the sample, but forms an image with mirror electrons bounced back by the electric field formed on the sample by means of the potential difference between the first and the second voltages. The image processing device generates a control signal for controlling the potential difference on the basis of the acquired signal, and optimizes defect contrast by controlling the reflection surface of the mirror electrons.

Charged particle beam device

A defect inspection device includes a sample support member, a negative voltage, an imaging element, an ultraviolet light source, a movement stage, and a control device. The control device controls the movement stage such that a portion of a linear part included in the image or a location on an extensional line of the linear part is positioned at a specific location in an irradiated region of the electron beam. The control device also repeats the control of the movement stage until an end of the linear part is positioned within the irradiated region of the electron beam.

Defect inspection method and defect inspection device

A purpose of the present invention is to provide a charged particle beam apparatus that performs apparatus adjustment based on a proper evaluation of a beam. To achieve the abovementioned purpose, with the present invention, proposed is a charged particle beam apparatus comprising: an irradiation optical system including a lens for converging charged particle beams emitted from a charged particle source; and an imaging optical system for imaging the charged particles obtained by irradiating the charged particle beams toward a sample on an imaging element, wherein the charged particle beam apparatus comprises a control apparatus for controlling the lens, and the control apparatus evaluates for each lens condition the size of a specific brightness area obtained by the charged particle beam being made to reach the sample, and selects the lens condition for which the size information fulfills a designated condition.

Charged particle beam apparatus, and method of adjusting charged particle beam apparatus

The objective of the present invention is to propose a charged particle beam device with which an imaging optical system and an irradiation optical system can be adjusted with high precision. In order to achieve this objective, provided is a charged particle beam device comprising: a first charged particle column which serves as an irradiation optical signal; a deflector that deflects charged particles which have passed through the inside of the first charged particle column toward an object; and a second charged particle column which serves as an imaging optical system. The charged particle beam device is provided with: a light source that emits light toward the object; and a control device that obtains, on the basis of detection charged particles generated according to irradiation of light emitted from the light source, a plurality of deflection signals which maintain a certain deflection state, and that selects or calculates, from the plurality of deflection signals or from relationship information produced from the plurality of deflection signals, a deflection signal that satisfies a predetermined condition.

Charged particle beam device and method for adjusting charged particle beam device

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a charged particle beam device that exhibits high performance due to the use of vanadium glass coatings, and to provide a method of manufacturing a component for a charged particle beam device. Specifically provided is a charged particle beam device using a vacuum component characterized by comprising a metal container, the interior space of which is evacuated to form a high vacuum, and coating layers formed on the surface on the interior space-side of the metal container, wherein the coating layers are vanadium-containing glass, which is to say an amorphous substance. Coating vanadium glass onto walls of a space where it is desirable to form a high vacuum, for example walls in the vicinity of an electron source, reduces gas discharge in the vicinity of the electron source, and the getter effect of the coating layer induces localized evacuation and enables the formation of an extremely high vacuum, even in spaces having a complex structure, without providing a large high-vacuum pump.

Charged particle beam device, and method of manufacturing component for charged particle beam device

A conventional method to process a tip fails to designate the dimension of the shape of the end of the tip, and so fails to obtain a tip having any desired diameter. Impurities may be attached to the tip. Based on a correlation between the voltage applied or the time during processing of the end of the tip and the diameter of the tip end, the applied voltage is controlled so as to obtain a desired diameter of the tip end for processing of the tip. This allows a sharpened tip made of a tungsten monocrystal thin wire to be manufactured to have any desired diameter in the range of 0.1 &#x3bc;m or more and 2.0 &#x3bc;m or less.

Method for manufacturing electron source

In an accelerating tube which uses a conductive insulator, there is a possibility that the dopant concentration on a surface of the conductive insulator becomes non-uniform so that the surface resistance of the conductive insulator becomes non-uniform. Accordingly, a circumferential groove is formed on the inner surface of the conductive insulator accelerating tube in plural stages, and metal is metalized along inner portions of the grooves. When the resistance of a specific portion on the surface of the accelerating tube differs from the resistance of an area around the specific portion, the potential of the metalized region on the inner surface of the accelerating tube becomes a fixed value and hence, the potential distribution on the inner surface of the accelerating tube in the vertical direction can be maintained substantially equal without regard to the circumferential direction.

Charged particle beam radiation apparatus

The disclosed charged particle beam apparatus includes a field-emission electron source including &#x3c;310&#x3e; single crystal of tungsten; a vacuum chamber having the electron source therein; an exhausting system for exhausting the vacuum chamber; a filament connected to the electron source to let flow a current through the electron source and thereby heat the electron source; a power supply for letting a current flow through the filament; an ammeter for measuring a total current emitted from the electron source; and a controlling unit for exercising control to cause the power supply to let a current flow through the filament when the total current measured periodically has become a predetermined ratio or less as compared with a total current from the electron source found immediately after first electron beam emission, or a total current from the electron beam found immediately after a current is let flow through the filament.

Field-emission electron gun and method for controlling same

Because a mirror electron imaging type inspection apparatus for obtaining an inspection object image with mirror electrons has been difficult to optimize inspection conditions, since the image forming principles of the apparatus are different from those of conventional SEM type inspection apparatuses. In order to solve the above conventional problem, the present invention has made it possible for the user to examine such conditions as inspection speed, inspection sensitivity, etc. intuitively by displaying the relationship among the values of inspection speed S, inspection object digital signal image pixel size D, inspection object image size L, and image signal acquisition cycle P with use of a time delay integration method as a graph on an operation screen. The user can thus determine a set of values of a pixel size, an inspection image width, and a TDI sensor operation cycle easily with reference to the displayed graph.

Graphical user interface for use with electron beam wafer inspection

A scanning electron microscope having a charged particle beam that when in a state being irradiated toward a sample, a voltage is applied to the sample so that the charged particle beam does not reach the sample. The scanning electron microscope also detects information on a potential of a sample using a signal obtained, and a device for automatically adjusting conditions based on the result of measuring.

Scanning electron microscope

An electric field for decelerating an electron beam is formed on a surface of a sample semiconductor to be inspected, an electron beam having a specific area (a sheet electron beam) and containing a component having such an energy as not to reach the surface of the sample semiconductor is reflected in the very vicinity of the surface of the sample semiconductor by action of the electric field for deceleration and then forms an image through an imaging lens. Thus images of plural fields on the surface of the sample semiconductor are obtained and are stored in image memory units. By comparing the stored images of the plural fields with one another, the presence and position of a defect in the fields are determined.

Apparatus and method for wafer pattern inspection

Method and apparatus for pattern inspection

In the present invention, the structure of an electrification control electrode is changed from a grid type to a slit type and thereby shadows are not formed when a wafer is irradiated with a beam. Further, a beam forming slit is disposed ahead of an electrification control slit, thus the electrification control slit is prevented from being irradiated with an electron beam for preliminary electrification, and thereby secondary electrons which disturb the control of the electrification are inhibited from being generated. The shape of the slit is designed so that the strength of an electron beam may gradually decrease toward both the ends of an electron beam irradiation region in the longitudinal direction thereof. Furthermore, a preliminary static eliminator to remove or reduce the unevenness in an electrification potential distribution which has undesirably been formed earlier is disposed.

Pattern defect inspection method and apparatus thereof

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Hisaya Murakoshi