Seiko Instruments Inc

Hitachi High-tech Science Corporation

Sii Nanotechnology Inc.

Mitsubishi Denki Kabushiki Kaisha

Other

Kazuo Aita

Yasuhiko Sugiyama

Tomokazu Kozakai

Osamu Matsuda

Anto Yasaka

Fumio Aramaki

Hiroshi Oba

Osamu Takaoka

Takashi Ogawa

Toshiaki Fujii

Takashi Kaito

Junichi Tashiro

Kensuke Shiina

Yoshitomo Nakagawa

Takashi Terada

Kouji Iwasaki

Manabu Hashimoto

Yoshihiro Koyama

Kazuhiko Sumi

Yoshikazu Sakaue

Yutaka Ozaki

Masahiro Sasakura

A method of acquiring an image of an image acquiring region of a sample comprises a first step of irradiating and scanning an ion beam in a first scan pattern on a first scan region of a sample, the scan region including therein the image acquiring region, and a second step of detecting secondary charged particles generated by irradiating and scanning the ion beam on the first scan region of the sample and generating first image data of the image acquiring region. The first and second steps are repeated a plurality of times using different scan patterns on different scan regions that differ from the first scan and the first scan region and from one another, each of the different scan regions including therein the image acquiring region, to generate a plurality of image data of the image acquiring region. Image data of the image acquiring region are generated by synthesizing all the image data generated by scanning the different scan region, and the synthesized image data of the image acquiring region are displayed on a display unit.

Method for acquiring image and ion beam apparatus

A method for acquiring an image, in which an image of an image acquiring region is acquired by radiating an ion beam to a sample having a conducting part with a linear edge on a dielectric substrate, includes performing an equal-width scan of the ion beam in a first direction that obliquely intersects the linear edge and sweep in a second direction intersecting the first direction. The ion beam is sequentially scanned in different patterns on different scan regions of parallelogram shape, each of which includes the image acquiring region. Secondary charged particles are detected to generate image data of all the scan regions, and image data of the scan regions are calculated to generate image data of the image acquiring region. The image data of the image acquiring region are synthesized to display the image data of the image acquiring region.

A focused ion beam apparatus is equipped with a gas field ion source that can produce a focused ion beam for a long period of time by stably and continuously emitting ions from the gas field ion source having high luminance, along an optical axis of an ion-optical system for a long period of time. The gas field ion source has an emitter for emitting ions, the emitter having a sharpened end part made of iridium fixed to a cylinder-shaped base part made of dissimilar wire.

Focused ion beam apparatus

There is provided an iridium tip including a pyramid structure having one {100} crystal plane as one of a plurality of pyramid surfaces in a sharpened apex portion of a single crystal with &#x3c;210&#x3e; orientation. The iridium tip is applied to a gas field ion source or an electron source. The gas field ion source and/or the electron source is applied to a focused ion beam apparatus, an electron microscope, an electron beam applied analysis apparatus, an ion-electron multi-beam apparatus, a scanning probe microscope or a mask repair apparatus.

Iridium tip, gas field ion source, focused ion beam apparatus, electron source, electron microscope, electron beam applied analysis apparatus, ion-electron multi-beam apparatus, scanning probe microscope, and mask repair apparatus

There is provided a repair apparatus including a gas field ion source which includes an ion generation section including a sharpened tip, a cooling unit which cools the tip, an ion beam column which forms a focused ion beam by focusing ions of a gas generated in the gas field ion source, a sample stage which moves while a sample to be irradiated with the focused ion beam is placed thereon, a sample chamber which accommodates at least the sample stage therein, and a control unit which repairs a mask or a mold for nano-imprint lithography, which is the sample, with the focused ion beam formed by the ion beam column. The gas field ion source generates nitrogen ions as the ions, and the tip is constituted by an iridium single crystal capable of generating the ions.

Repair apparatus

A method for fabricating a sharpened needle-like emitter, the method including: electrolytically polishing an end portion of an electrically conductive emitter material so as to be tapered toward a tip portion thereof; performing a first etching in which the electrolytically polished part of the emitter material is irradiated with a charged-particle beam to form a pyramid-like sharpened part having a vertex including the tip portion; performing a second etching in which the tip portion is further sharpened through field-assisted gas etching, while observing a crystal structure at the tip portion by a field ion microscope and keeping the number of atoms at a leading edge of the tip portion at a predetermined number or less; and heating the emitter material to arrange the atoms at the leading edge of the tip portion of the sharpened part in a pyramid shape.

Method for fabricating emitter

A composite focused ion beam device has a first ion beam irradiation system that irradiates a first ion beam for processing a sample and a second ion beam irradiation system that irradiates a second ion beam for processing or observing the sample. The first ion beam irradiation system has a plasma type gas ion source that generates first ions for forming the first ion beam, each of the first ions having a first mass. The second ion beam irradiation system has a gas field ion source that generates second ions for forming the second ion beam. Each of the second ions has a second mass smaller than that of the first mass.

Composite focused ion beam device, process observation method using the same, and processing method

A composite focused ion beam device has a sample stage for supporting a sample, a first ion beam irradiation system that irradiates a first ion beam for processing the sample, and a second ion beam irradiation system that irradiates a second ion beam for processing or observing the sample. The first ion beam irradiation system has a liquid metal ion source that generates first ions for forming the first ion beam. The second ion beam irradiation system has a gas field ion source that generates second ions for forming the second ion beam. The first ion beam irradiated by the first ion beam irradiation system has a first beam diameter and the second ion beam irradiated by the second ion beam irradiation system has a second beam diameter smaller than the first beam diameter. The first and second ion beam irradiation systems are disposed relative to the sample stage so that axes of the first and second ion beams are orthogonal to a tilt axis of the sample stage.

Composite focused ion beam device, and processing observation method and processing method using the same

When scanning by an ion beam in advance an areaincluding a reference holeformed at a position other than the area to be processedof a light-shielding filmon a glass substrate, a secondary ion signal of the same atom as the incident ions injected into the substrate is detected instead of detecting the secondary ion signal of the atoms included in the base film, and the positionof the hole is stored. Then, the areaincluding the hole formed during the processing is scanned and the secondary ion signal of the same atom as the incident ions is detected to determine the current positionof the hole, the position of the hole obtained by the previous detection and the current position of the hole are compared, and the amount of shift of the position of the hole is determined. This shifted amount is regarded as the drift amount.

Ion beam processing method

Noted portions of an image, such as a pin point hole in an isolated area or a pattern contour that forms a continuous boundary area, are clearly displayed by first erasing background noise by acquiring information regarding differences between an image detection signal (pixel) of each scanned position (dot) in matrix form and image detection signals of the surrounding scanned positions, and secondly, by adopting a value that is either a largest or smallest value greater than or equal to zero among a plurality of sets of information on value differences as new image information for the scanned position.

Method for extracting objective image

There are provided a plurality of light sources for applying light beams of red, green, and blue to a document surface. An optical system condenses light that is reflected from the document surface. A plurality of sensors are provided in the image formation section of the optical system, and read an image of the document. A reading device scans the sensors at a predetermined cycle in synchronism of lighting of the light sources. The wavelengths of the light sources are preferably 480 nm, 545 nm, and 640 nm or their vicinities. Information of the image is read out as serial electrical signals corresponding to the respective wavelengths.

Image sensor having uniform sensitivity

The present invention achieves the quick and precise neutralization operation for wide area charge up and limited area charge up, both existing in a sample in a mixed manner at the same time, by having charge neutralizers separately provided for wide area charge up and limited area charge up respectively, or by having a charge neutralizer with a scanning function, so that a beam can be scanned or stopped at the perceived area by a deflector, or having a charge neutralizer with an iris having a central opening and openings in the periphery of the central opening within the optical system, so that a quick and precise neutralization operation can be achieved with respect to wide area charge up and limited area charge up both existing in a sample in a mixed manner at the same time.

In the present invention, a dot matrix taking a spot of an ion beam at a processing surface as one dot is set at the processing surface, the presence or absence of secondary charged particles, indicating the presence of a black defect, discharged from a plurality of dots including a noted dot and associated peripheral dots is detected while eliminating black defects by irradiating each dot of a processing region with an ion beam for a fixed time, calculating a physical quantity corresponding to this presence based on this detection information, and determining completion of processing of this noted dot when this value is less than or equal to a reference value.

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Tokyo, Japan

Kazuo Aita