Hitachi-High-Technologies Corporation

Hitachi Medical Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-Ge Nuclear Energy, Ltd.

Kenji Nakahira

Atsushi Miyamoto

Toshifumi Honda

Maki Tanaka

Takehiro Hirai

Ryo Nakagaki

Yohei Minekawa

Jie Bai

Toshihiko Nakata

Chie Shishido

Hideyuki Kazumi

Minoru Harada

Yusuke Ominami

Naoki Hosoya

Shinsuke Kawanishi

Go Kotaki

Mitsutoshi Kobayashi

Katsuhiro Kitahashi

Minoru Yoshida

A scanning charged particle microscope apparatus includes image quality improvement unit which performs an image quality improvement process on image data which is obtained by detecting particles generated from a sample, the image quality improvement unit divides a region in which the image data is acquired into two or more regions on the basis of a distance from a region in which the image data within a visual field of a charged particle optical unit is not acquired, determines an image quality improvement processing method and a processing parameter for image quality improvement for the image data in each of the separate regions according to the separate regions; and performs an image quality improvement process on the image data in each of the separate regions by using the determined processing method and processing parameter corresponding to the separate region.

Method of improving quality of scanning charged particle microscope image, and scanning charged particle microscope apparatus

In order to enable high-speed imaging of a wide-field image, the imaging method using the electron microscope comprises: irradiating and scanning a wide-field region of the sample with a low-dose amount of electron beam, and acquiring a wide-field image of the sample; setting, from this wide-field image, a narrow-field region; irradiating and scanning this narrow-field region with a high-dose amount of the electron beam, and acquiring a narrow-field image of the sample; determining the noise-removal parameters for the acquired wide-field image and narrow-field image; performing image quality improvement processing on the wide-field image and the narrow-field image; performing drift correction on the narrow-field image undergone the image quality improvement processing; and combining the narrow-field image undergone this drift correction and the wide-field image in such a manner that the visibility of each is at the same level throughout the entirety of the combined image.

Electron microscope device and imaging method using same

A charged-particle-beam device is provided with a data processing unit that removes, from a detector signal, the effect that scattering of a primary charged-particle beam before the primary charged-particle beam reaches a specimen has on the spot shape of the primary charged-particle beam. For example, when using an electron microscope to observe a specimen in a non-vacuum atmosphere, the effect that scattering of a primary charged-particle beam due to a barrier film or a gas present in a non-vacuum space has on the spot shape of the primary charged-particle beam is removed from a signal acquired by a detector. This makes it easy to obtain high-quality images.

Charged-particle-beam device, specimen-image acquisition method, and program recording medium

A specimen image capture method using a charged particle microscope device includes: a first image acquisition step in which the gain of a detector in a charged particle microscope is set to a first gain value, charged particle beam scanning is carried out on a specimen, and a first image is obtained; a second image acquisition step in which the gain of the detector is set to a second gain value, which is different to the first gain value, charged particle beam scanning is carried out on the specimen, and a second image is obtained; and an image combination step in which the first gain value and the second gain value are used and the first image and the second image are combined.

Charged particle microscope device and image capturing method

In order to acquire high resolution ultrasound images while maintaining an appropriate frame rate in ultrasound diagnostic devices, the disclosed method generates high resolution ultrasound images by performing image reconstruction on the basis of multiple ultrasound frame images captured along a time series and the magnitudes of positional shifts, or forms high resolution ultrasound images by performing image reconstruction on the basis of multiple ultrasound frame images acquired by controlling the ultrasound probe and varying scan orientation or scan focal length frame by frame.

Ultrasound diagnostic device and method of generating an intermediary image of ultrasound image

An object of the present invention is to provide an optical inspection apparatus that suppresses an influence of quantum noise and obtains superior defect detection performance even when an amount of light is small and a method thereof. In order to resolve the above problem, the present invention provides an optical inspection apparatus that includes a light source which radiates light to a sample; a light interference device which causes target light transmitted, scattered, or reflected from the sample and reference light to interfere with each other, such that strength of light after the interference becomes lower than strength of the target light; a photon counter which measures a photon number of the light after the interference by the light interference device; and a defect identifier which identifies the presence or absence of a defect, on the basis of a detected photon number obtained by the photon counter.

Optical inspection apparatus and method thereof

A high-performance image quality improvement process, capable of improving the image quality of low-definition areas (lower layer patterns in a multilayer, bottoms of holes in a hole pattern, etc.), is performed to a captured image. Definition enhancement intensity is calculated using height information included in design data or estimate values of sample height information calculated from the captured image, and the image quality improvement process is performed to the captured image using the definition enhancement intensity.

Charged-particle microscope device and method for inspecting sample using same

A method for reviewing defect, comprising the steps of: as an image acquisition step, imaging a surface of a sample using arbitrary image acquisition condition selected from a plurality of image acquisition conditions and obtaining a defect image; as a defect position calculation step, proceeding the defect image obtained by the image acquisition step and calculating a defect position on the surface of the sample; as a defect detection accuracy calculation step, obtaining a defect detection accuracy of the defect position calculated by the defect position calculation step; and as a conclusion determination step, determinating whether the defect detection accuracy obtained by the defect detection accuracy calculation step meets a predetermined requirement or not; wherein until it is determined that the defect detection accuracy obtained by the defect detection accuracy calculation step meets a predetermined in the conclusion determination step, the image acquisition condition is selected from the plurality of image acquisition conditions once again and the image acquisition step, the defect position calculation step, the defect detection accuracy calculation step and the conclusion determination step are repeated.

Method and apparatus for reviewing defect

A plurality of images is captured, and the plurality of images is integrated and displayed after one or more ROIs included in the captured images are extracted and classified. At integration, an integration method is controlled according to a classification result of the ROI.

Observation device and observation method

An optical inspection apparatus is provided which suppresses the influence of quantum noise including: light irradiator which irradiates a sample with light; reference light emitter which emits reference light; light interference unit which generates interfering light through interference between transmitted light, scattered light, or reflected light from the sample irradiated with light by the light irradiator, and the reference light emitted by the reference light emitter; light detector which detects the interfering light generated by the light interference unit; defect identifier which identifies the presence or absence of a defect based on a detection signal obtained by the light detector detecting the interfering light; and light convertor which converts at least the state of the transmitted, scattered, or reflected light from the sample, the state of the reference light emitted by the reference light emitter, or the state of the interfering light generated by the light interference unit.

Optical inspection method and optical inspection apparatus

A medical diagnostic device is characterized in that an image processing unit () includes an image noise removal part (') which removes the noise in the generated image of a person to be examined, a signal component enhancement processing part (&#x2032;) which generates an enhanced-signal component image by performing signal component enhancement processing of the image from which the noise is removed by the image noise removal part, and an image combining part (&#x2032;) which generates a combined image by combining the image of the person to be examined, the image from which the noise is removed by the image noise removal part, and an enhanced-signal component image subjected to signal component enhancement processing by the signal component enhancement processing part.

Medical diagnostic device and method of improving image quality of medical diagnostic device

The invention relates to a technique of improving a contrast of a lower-layer pattern in a multi layer by synthesizing detected signals from a plurality of detectors by using an appropriate allocation ratio in accordance with pattern arrangement. In a charged particle beam device capable of improving image quality by using detected images obtained from a plurality of detectors and in a method of improving the image quality, a method of generating one or more output images from detected images corresponding to respective outputs of the detectors that are arranged at different locations is controlled by using information of a pattern direction, an edge strength, or others calculated from a design data or the detected image. In this manner, a detection area of the detected signals can be expanded by using the plurality of detectors, and the image quality such as the contrast can be improved by synthesizing the detected signals by using the pattern direction or the edge strength calculated from the design data or the detected images.

Charged particle beam device and a method of improving image quality of the same

A defect observation device including an input-output unit supplied with information of a taught defect, and information of an ideal output of the taught defect, and configured to display a processing result based upon a determined image processing parameter set; and an automatic determination unit configured to: select image processing parameter sets which are less in number than the total number of all image processing parameter sets, out of all image processing parameter sets, calculate image processing results on an input defect image, by using the selected image processing parameter sets, calculate a coincidence degree for each of the selected image processing parameter sets, estimate distribution of an index value in all image processing parameter sets from distribution of the coincidence degree for the selected image processing parameter sets, and determine an image processing parameter set to have a high coincidence degree out of all image processing parameter sets.

Defect observation method and defect observation device

In order to obtain a quality image without deterioration owing to radiation noise in inspection using the optical video camera in high radiation environment, an inspection apparatus is formed of an image pick-up unit, an image obtaining unit which fetches a video image that contains a signal (noise) that is substantially independent of each frame obtained by the image pick-up unit, a local alignment unit which locally aligns frames with different time phases for forming the image fetched by the image obtaining unit, a frame synthesizing unit which synthesizes the plurality of frames aligned by the local alignment unit for generating a synthesis frame with an SN ratio higher than the SN ratio of the frame before frame synthesis, and an image output unit for displaying or recording the image formed of the synthesis frame generated by the frame synthesizing unit.

Inspection apparatus and method for producing image for inspection

It is possible to improve an image quality of an ultrasonographic device and improve visibility of a tissue structure and a lesion. According to a noise amount estimated for each of at least two resolution levels and reliability of the noise amount estimation, a corrected noise amount is calculated. An intensity conversion is performed on a decomposition coefficient obtained by a multi-resolution decomposition process using the corrected noise amount. Moreover, by performing intensity conversion of the respective decomposition coefficients according to a plurality of decomposition coefficients, it is possible to generate a high-quality image. Furthermore, by switching processing parameters in accordance with the imaging condition, the image type, and the imaging object, it is possible to simultaneously realize the processing time and the image quality appropriate for the purpose.

Growing community of inventors

Fujisawa, Japan

Kenji Nakahira