Nikon Corporation

Ebara Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Other

Mamoru Nakasuji

Tohru Satake

Nobuharu Noji

Shoji Yoshikawa

Toshifumi Kimba

Hirosi Sobukawa

Tsutomu Karimata

Takeshi Murakami

Shin Oowada

Mutsumi Saito

Kenji Watanabe

Masahiro Hatakeyama

Takao Kato

Muneki Hamashima

Yuichiro Yamazaki

Ichirota Nagahama

Takamitsu Nagai

Toru Takagi

Teruaki Okino

Kazuyoshi Sugihara

Shintaro Kawata

Hiroshi Nishimura

Naoto Kihara

Satoshi Mori

Hiroshi Sobukawa

Shohei Suzuki

Yukiharu Okubo

Yoshiaki Kohama

Matsutaro Miyamoto

Kazuya Okamoto

Noriyuki Hirayanagi

Kenji Terao

Kenichi Suematsu

Koichi Kamijo

Hiroyasu Simizu

Keiichi Tohyama

Shin-Ichi Takahashi

Toru Kaga

Masahiro Hatakayama

Tsutomi Karimata

Nabuharu Noji

Mitsumi Saito

An electron beam apparatus for capturing images by deflecting a primary electron beam by a deflector to irradiate each of sub-visual fields which are formed by dividing an evaluation area on a sample surface, and detecting secondary electrons containing information on the sample surface in each of the sub-visual fields by a detecting device. The detecting device includes a plurality of unit detectors each including an area sensor, a bundle of optical fibers having one end coupled to a detection plane of the area sensor, and an FOP coated on the other end of the bundle of optical fibers and formed with a scintillator, on which a secondary electron beam emitted from the respective sub-visual field is focused. An electromagnetic deflector deflects the secondary electron beam each time the electron beam is irradiated to the next sub-visual field to move the secondary electron beams over the surfaces of the FOPs.

Electro-optical inspection apparatus using electron beam

An inspection apparatus by an electron beam comprises: an electron-optical devicehaving an electron-optical system for irradiating the object with a primary electron beam from an electron beam source, and a detector for detecting the secondary electron image projected by the electron-optical systems; a stage systemfor holding and moving the object relative to the electron-optical system; a mini-environment chamberfor supplying a clean gas to the object to prevent dust from contacting the object; a working chamberfor accommodating the stage device, the working chamber being controllable so as to have a vacuum atmosphere; at least two loading chambersdisposed between the mini-environment chamber and the working chamber, adapted to be independently controllable so as to have a vacuum atmosphere; and a loaderfor transferring the object to the stage system through the loading chambers.

Inspection system by charged particle beam and method of manufacturing devices using the system

A substrate inspection apparatus-(FIG.) of the present invention performs the following steps of: carrying a substrate 'S' to be inspected into an inspection chamber-; maintaining a vacuum in said inspection chamber; isolating said inspection chamber from a vibration; moving successively said substrate by means of a stage-with at least one degree of freedom; irradiating an electron beam having a specified width; helping said electron beam reach to a surface of said substrate via a primary electron optical system-; trapping secondary electrons emitted from said substrate via a secondary electron optical system-and guiding it to a detecting system-; forming a secondary electron image in an image processing system based on a detection signal of a secondary electron beam obtained by said detecting system; detecting a defective location in said substrate based on the secondary electron image formed by said image processing system; indicating and/or storing said defective location in said substrate by CPU-; and taking said completely inspected substrate out of the inspection chamber. Thereby, the defect inspection on the substrate can be performed successively with high level of accuracy and efficiency as well as with higher throughput.

Apparatus for inspection with electron beam, method for operating same, and method for manufacturing semiconductor device using former

Problems to be solved: To obtain higher brightness than Langmuir limit. Adjust brightness to the optimum value. Method of resolution: To obtain such beams, the following means and methods are effective. A charged particles beam apparatus consisting of a charged particle source, a beam drawing electrode, and a beam control electrode, wherein; after the charged particles beam source a condenser lens is designed, and brightness of the charged particles beam is adjusted by adjusting a magnification factor of said condenser lens.

Charged particles beam apparatus and charged particles beam apparatus design method

An inspection apparatus by an electron beam comprises: an electron-optical devicehaving an electron-optical system for irradiating the object with a primary electron beam from an electron beam source, and a detector for detecting the secondary electron image projected by the electron-optical system; a stage systemfor holding and moving the object relative to the electron-optical system; a mini-environment chamberfor supplying a clean gas to the object to prevent dust from contacting to the object; a working chamberfor accommodating the stage device, the working chamber being controllable so as to have a vacuum atmosphere; at least two loading chambersdisposed between the mini-environment chamber and the working chamber, adapted to be independently controllable so as to have a vacuum atmosphere; and a loaderfor transferring the object to the stage system through the loading chambers.

An electron beam apparatus, in which an electron beam emitted from an electron gun having a cathode and an anode is focused and irradiated onto a sample, and secondary electrons emanated from the sample are directed into a detector, the apparatus further comprising means for optimizing irradiation of the electron beam emitted from the electron gun onto the sample, the optimizing means may be two-stage deflectors disposed in proximity to the electron gun which deflects and directs the electron beam emitted in a specific direction so as to be in alignment with the optical axis direction of the electron beam apparatus, the electron beam emitted in the specific direction being at a certain angle with respect to the optical axis due to the fact that, among the crystal orientations of said cathode, a specific crystal orientation allowing a higher level of electron beam emission out of alignment with the optical axis direction.

Electron beam apparatus and a device manufacturing method by using said electron beam apparatus

An electron beam emitted from an electron gun (G) forms a reduced image on a sample (S) through a non-dispersion Wien-filter (-), an electromagnetic deflector (-), a beam separator (-), and a tablet lens (-) as an objective lens. The beam separator (-) is configured such that a distance by which a secondary electron beam passes through the beam separator is approximately three times longer than a distance by which a primary electron beam passes through the beam separator. Therefore, even if a magnetic field in the beam separator is set to deflect the primary electron beam by a small angle equal to or less than approximately 10 degrees, the secondary electron beam can be deflected by approximately 30 degrees, so that the primary and secondary electron beams are sufficiently separated. Also, since the primary electron beam is deflected by a small angle, less aberration occurs in the primary electron beam. Accordingly, since a light path length of a primary electro-optical system, it is possible to reduce the influence of space charge and the occurrence of deflection aberration.

Electron beam apparatus

The present invention provides an electron beam apparatus for irradiating a sample with primary electron beams to detect secondary electron beams generated from a surface of the sample by the irradiation for evaluating the sample surface. In the electron beam apparatus, an electron gun has a cathode for emitting primary electron beams. The cathode includes a plurality of emitters for emitting primary electron beams, arranged apart from one another on a circle centered at an optical axis of a primary electro-optical system. The plurality of emitters are arranged such that when the plurality of emitters are projected onto a straight line parallel with a direction in which the primary electron beams are scanned, resulting points on the straight line are spaced at equal intervals.

Electron beam apparatus and method of manufacturing semiconductor device using the apparatus

An electron beam apparatus for providing an evaluation of a sample, such as a semiconductor wafer, that includes a micro-pattern with a minimum line width not greater than 0.1 &#x3bc;m with high throughput. A primary electron beam generated by an electron gun is irradiated onto a sample and secondary electrons emanating from the sample are formed into an image on a detector by an image projection optical system. An electron gunhas a cathodeand a drawing electrode, and an electron emission surfaceof the cathode defines a concave surface. The drawing electrodehas a convex surfacecomposed of a partial outer surface of a second sphere facing the electron emission surfaceof the cathode and an apertureformed through the convex surface for passage of the electrons. An aberration correction optical apparatus comprises two identically sized multi-polar Wien filters arranged such that their centers are in alignment with a &#xbc; plane position and a &#xbe; plane position, respectively, along an object plane-image plane segment in the aberration correction optical apparatus, and optical elements having bidirectional focus disposed in an object plane position, an intermediate image-formation plane position and an image plane position, respectively, in the aberration correction optical apparatus.

Electron beam apparatus and an aberration correction optical apparatus

An electron beam apparatus such as a sheet beam based testing apparatus has an electron-optical system for irradiating an object under testing with a primary electron beam from an electron beam source, and projecting an image of a secondary electron beam emitted by the irradiation of the primary electron beam, and a detector for detecting the secondary electron beam image projected by the electron-optical system; specifically, the electron beam apparatus comprises beam generating meansfor irradiating an electron beam having a particular width, a primary electron-optical systemfor leading the beam to reach the surface of a substrateunder testing, a secondary electron-optical systemfor trapping secondary electrons generated from the substrateand introducing them into an image processing system, a stagefor transportably holding the substratewith a continuous degree of freedom equal to at least one, a testing chamber for the substrate, a substrate transport mechanism for transporting the substrateinto and out of the testing chamber, an image processing analyzerfor detecting defects on the substrate, a vibration isolating mechanism for the testing chamber, a vacuum system for holding the testing chamber at a vacuum, and a control systemfor displaying or storing positions of defects on the substrate

Sheet beam-type testing apparatus

The present invention provides an electron beam apparatus for evaluating a sample surface, which has a primary electro-optical system for irradiating a sample with a primary electron beam, a detecting system, and a secondary electro-optical system for directing secondary electron beams emitted from the sample surface by the irradiation of the primary electron beam to the detecting system.

An inspection apparatus and a semiconductor device manufacturing method using the same. The inspection apparatus is used for defect inspection, line width measurement, surface potential measurement or the like of a sample such as a wafer. In the inspection apparatus, a plurality of charged particles is delivered from a primary optical system to the sample, and secondary charged particles emitted from the sample are separated from the primary optical system and introduced through a secondary optical system to a detector. Irradiation of the charged particles is conducted while moving the sample. Irradiation spots of the charged particles are arranged by N rows along a moving direction of the sample and by M columns along a direction perpendicular thereto. Every row of the irradiation spots of the charged particles is shifted successively by a predetermined amount in a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the sample.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Mamoru Nakasuji