Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-science Systems, Ltd.

Other

Isao Nagaoki

Hiroyuki Kobayashi

Eiko Nakazawa

Hiromi Inada

Takeshi Sato

Masanari Koguchi

Yasuhira Nagakubo

Ruriko Tsuneta

Hiroaki Matsumoto

Yoshihiko Nakayama

Toshiaki Tanigaki

Takafumi Yotsuji

Akiko Fujisawa

Mitsuru Oonuma

Akira Omachi

Yoshifumi Taniguchi

Kiyotaka Nakano

Kotaro Hosoya

Hideki Kikuchi

Ryoichi Ishii

Hiroshi Aoyagi

Toshiyuki Oyagi

Katsuyuki Minakawa

Yoshihiro Ohtsu

Toshiyuki Ohyagi

An electron microscope includes a secondary electron detector () which detects an electron generated when a sample () is illuminated with an electron beam from an electron gun (), a monitor () which displays a secondary electron image of the sample based on an output of the detector, a gas inlet device () which emits gas to the sample, and a gas control device () which controls a gas emitting amount of the gas inlet device so that a degree of vacuum in an intermediate chamber () in which the secondary electron detector is installed may be kept at less than a set value P1 during gas emission performed by the gas inlet device. Accordingly, a microscopic image of the sample in a gas atmosphere with use of the detector requiring application of voltage is obtained.

Electron microscope and sample observation method

The objective of the present invention is to maintain the surrounding of a sample at atmospheric pressure and efficiently detect secondary electrons. In a sample chamber of a charged particle device, a sample holder () has: a gas introduction pipe and a gas evacuation pipe for controlling the vicinity of a sample () to be an atmospheric pressure environment; a charged particle passage hole () and a micro-orifice () enabling detection of secondary electrons () emitted from the sample (), co-located above the sample (); and a charged particle passage hole () with a hole diameter larger than the micro-orifice () above the sample () so as to be capable of actively evacuating gas during gas introduction.

Sample holder and charged particle device

The present invention relates to the acquisition of tilted series images of a minute sample in a short time. The present invention relates to: measuring in advance the relation between an amount of focus shift and a degree of coincidence at the time of acquiring tilted series images; calculating backwards a focus shift from the degree of coincidence on the basis of this relation; correcting the focus shift by controlling a stage, an objective lens, and the like; and thus acquiring the tilted series images. In addition, the present invention relates to: acquiring a reference image in advance at the time of photographing the tilted series images; obtaining the correlation between an acquired image and the reference image; and performing, if the degree of coincidence is equal to or smaller than a set value, processing such as the transmission of a warning message and the stop of an image acquisition sequence. According to the present invention, it becomes possible to perform focusing at the time of photographing the tilted series images at high speed, so that the length of time for photographing the tilted series images can be shortened. In addition, an image inappropriate for three-dimensional reconstruction can be removed. This makes it possible to enhance the throughput of failure analysis of a semiconductor and an advanced material.

Charged corpuscular ray apparatus

A transmission electron microscope includes an electron gunthat irradiates a samplewith an electron beam; an electron detectorthat detects electrons that are passed through the sampleand scattered; a first detection-side annular aperturethat is located between the electron detectorand the sampleand has a ring-shaped slit that limits inner and outer diameters of a transmission region of electrons scattered from the sample; and a second detection-side annular aperturethat is located between the first detection-side annular apertureand the electron detectorand has a ring-shaped slit that limits inner and outer diameters of a transmission region of scattered electrons that have passed through the first detection-side annular aperture. It is, therefore, possible to detect electrons scattered at high scattering angles without a limitation caused by a spherical aberration of an electron lens and improve a depth resolution.

Transmission electron microscope and sample observation method

An electron microscope according to the present invention includes a phase plate () having a thickness which changes in a radial direction, and adjusts a phase difference caused by a difference in electron beam path due to an effect of a spherical aberration when an electron beam is converged by a lens or an image of the electron beam is formed. Accordingly, the phase difference caused by the difference in electron beam path is adjusted, to thereby improve the coherence, so that a phase contrast image of transmitted electrons can be obtained at a higher resolution.

Electron microscope

There is provided a charged particle beam device which can prevent a specimen from not being able to be observed due to entering of a part of a grid of a mesh in a field of view, in which each pixel of a scanning transmission electron microscope image is displayed on the basis of a gray value of a predetermined gradation scale. In the case where the number of pixels of the predetermined gray value is not less than a predetermined percentage, it is judged that the mesh image is included in the scanning transmission electron microscope image. When the mesh image is not anymore included in the scanning transmission electron microscope image, the predetermined gradation scale is converted to another gradation scale and a scanning transmission electron microscope image is obtained.

Charged particle beam device

Using, as a detector, a CCD detector having a CCD element to which a scintillator is closely fixed, a backscattered or scanning transmission image is obtained by the following method. The detector is disposed directly under an objective lens to obtain the backscattered electron image. When one point of a specimen is irradiated with an electron beam, backscattered or transmission electrons generated from the specimen collide with the scintillator to form a luminescent pattern. This pattern is detected by the CCD detector, and stored in a memory. This processing is sequentially repeated for each irradiation position to obtain all the patterns in an electron beam scanning range. Arithmetic processing is performed on each pattern to convert it into an image. Usually, image data for one pixel is calculated from one pattern. By sequentially repeating this, a backscattered or transmission electron image in the electronic beam scanning range can be obtained.

Electron microscopy

There is provided a charged particle beam device which can prevent a specimen from not being able to be observed due to entering of a part of a grid of a mesh in a field of view, each pixel of a scanning transmission electron microscope image is displayed on the basis of a gray value of a predetermined gradation scale. In the case where the number of pixels of a predetermined gray value is less than a predetermined percentage, it is decided that a mesh image is not included in the scanning transmission electron microscope image. In the case where the number of pixels of the predetermined gray value is not less than a predetermined percentage, it is judged that the mesh image is included in the scanning transmission electron microscope image. In the case where the mesh image is included in the scanning transmission electron microscope image, a magnification is increased, a specimen stage is moved, or beam deflection is performed, and when the mesh image is not anymore included in the scanning transmission electron microscope image, the predetermined gradation scale is converted to other gradation scale and a scanning transmission electron microscope image is obtained.

As an image forming method including comparison between images for three-dimensional image construction or the like and an apparatus for forming such images, there are provided an image forming method and an electron microscope capable of obtaining with high accuracy or efficiency information required for comparison. In the image forming method, an image is formed on the basis of comparison between a plurality of images obtained by applying an electron beam to a specimen at different tilt angles. The method includes obtaining a first transmission image with the electron beam applied in a first direction and a second transmission image with the electron beam applied in a second direction, the second transmission image being formed within a region different from a peripheral blurred region resulting from tilting, and making a search in the first transmission image by using the second transmission image.

Image forming method and electron microscope

The present invention provides a method of observing a specimen in a field of view of an electron microscope comprising the acts of illuminating the specimen with an electron beam having a first angle and forming a first transmission image of the specimen in the field of view and adjusting the electron beam to a second angle and forming a second transmission image of the specimen in the field of view and calculating a degree of coincidence between the first and second transmission images.

Method and device for observing a specimen in a field of view of an electron microscope

Preparations are made for the transmission image of an object tilted as a reference image and the image obtained by polar coordinate conversion of this transmission image, and correlation is established with the image obtained by polar coordinate conversion of the transmission image of the object in a sample.

Sample observation method and transmission electron microscope

An object of the present invention is to provide an electron microscope that is capable of improving work efficiency when restarting sample observation. A control unit for controlling observation-condition setting devices, which include an electron-gun control unit, an irradiation-lens control unit, an objective-lens control unit, a magnifying-lens-system control unit, and a sample-stage control unit, is provided. When image data of a certain sample is specified, observation condition data of the sample is retrieved. Then, observation conditions, which are the same as those used when the image data of the sample has been saved, are automatically restored on an electron microscope on the basis of the observation condition data. As a result, an image, which is the same as the stored image, is restored faithfully.

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Hitachinaka, Japan

Isao Nagaoki