Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Kenji Ohtoshi

Munehiro Ogasawara

Kazuyoshi Sugihara

Jun Takamatsu

Yuichiro Yamazaki

Toru Koike

Itsuko Sakai

A charged beam applying apparatus comprises a column at least having a charged beam generation section and optical system for controlling the charged beam and a chamber for holding a specimen in place which is exposed with the charged beam. At least one inner portion of the column is formed of a specific material whose an atomic number is equal or less than 22. When a contamination is cleaned off in the column through the utilization of an oxidation effect, an oxide film is sometimes formed inside the column. The electric charging of the oxide film causes a beam control error. The specific material such as the metal of the atomic number causes very much less such error. This is because such specific material involves less emission of secondary electrons and less electric charging in the oxide film formed.

Charged beam applying apparatus

A charged beam apparatus comprises a source tank provided outside the column and containing a plasma source, a plasma generating apparatus for generating plasma from a plasma source supplied from the source tank, gate valves and an exhausting pump for introducing plasma generated by the plasma generating apparatus into the column and for exhausting the plasma therefrom, and an O-ring for restricting a passage of plasma in the column such that those portions of cleaning portions to be cleaned to which internal contaminants stick are mainly exposed to plasma. Therefore, it is possible to generation of an oxide film, a fluoride film, or the likes which cause drifting can be restricted.

Charged beam apparatus having cleaning function and method of cleaning

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Funabashi, Japan

Kenji Ohtoshi