Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Kabushiki Kaisha Komatsu Seisakusho

Ricoh Company, Ltd.

Renesas Technology Corp.

Nippon Electric Co., Ltd.

Hitachi Kenki Fine Tech Co., Ltd.

Fuji Industry Co., Ltd.

Masahiro Watanabe

Maki Tanaka

Takashi Hiroi

Toshihiko Nakata

Hiroyuki Shinada

Asahiro Kuni

Chie Shishido

Mari Nozoe

Aritoshi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Miyai

Shuichi Baba

Shunji Maeda

Yuji Takagi

Yasutsugu Usami

Takehiro Tachizaki

Yasuhiro Yoshitake

Yasuhiko Nara

Minoru Yoshida

Shunichi Matsumoto

Atsuko Takafuji

Hidetoshi Nishiyama

Minori Noguchi

Takenori Hirose

Yukio Matsuyama

Akira Hamamatsu

Sachio Uto

Takahiro Jingu

Takanori Ninomiya

Takashi Inoue

Yoshimasa Ohshima

Yasuhiro Gunji

Mineo Nomoto

Kishio Hidaka

Taku Ninomiya

Hideaki Sasazawa

Hideaki Doi

Teruaki Tokutomi

Motoyuki Hirooka

Tsuneo Nakagomi

Kaoru Sakai

Kenji Watanabe

Yukio Kembo

Takafumi Okabe

Atsushi Shimoda

Yuko Otani

Takafumi Morimoto

Kaifeng Zhang

Takashi Naito

Hiroki Yamamoto

Haruo Yoda

Manabu Edamura

Ken Takahashi

Takashi Namekawa

Tetsuya Matsui

Makoto Okai

Toru Kurenuma

Hisashi Onari

Noriyuki Takeo

Hideaki Matoba

Hiroshi Kikuchi

Hiroshi Kuroda

Tsutomu Takahashi

Toshiaki Morita

Tatsuo Hariyama

Sadao Shimoyashiro

Mitsunobu Isobe

Masami Iizuka

Kichie Matsuzaki

Kouichi Hayakawa

Shinji Homma

Masayoshi Takeda

Shuji Maeda

Hiroshi Goto

Makoto Ono

Hideaki Suzuki

Hidetoshi Morokuma

Yukihiro Shibata

Atsushi Taniguchi

Osamu Komuro

Akira Shimase

Hirokazu Matsumoto

Jun Kawai

Kenji Tamaki

Takashi Iizumi

Koichi Sugimoto

Hiroshi Morioka

Keiya Saito

Hirohito Okuda

Kazushi Yoshimura

Akio Yazaki

Takeshi Arai

Takeo Kato

Yoshio Matsumoto

Yoshimasa Ooshima

Yutaka Hiratsuka

Satoshi Sekino

Tadashi Suzuki

Yoshiyuki Nagano

Kenji Maruno

Kiyoshi Kaneko

The disclosed device, which, using an electron microscope or the like, minutely observes defects detected by an optical appearance-inspecting device or an optical defect-inspecting device, can reliably insert a defect to be observed into the field of an electron microscope or the like, and can be a device of smaller scale. The electron microscope, which observes defects detected by an optical appearance-inspecting device or an optical defect-inspecting device, has a configuration incorporating an optimal microscope that re-detects defects, and a spatial filter and a distribution polarization element are inserted at the pupil plane when making dark-field observations using this optical microscope. The electron microscope, which observes defects detected by an optical appearance-inspecting device or an optical defect-inspecting device, has a configuration incorporating an optimal microscope that re-detects defects, and a distribution filter is inserted at the pupil plane when making dark-field observations using this optical microscope.

Defect detection method and defect detection device and defect observation device provided with same

The disclosed device, which, using an electron microscope or the like, minutely observes defects detected by an optical appearance-inspecting device or an optical defect-inspecting device, can reliably insert a defect to be observed into the field of an electron microscope or the like, and can be a device of a smaller scale. The electron microscope, which observes defects detected by an optical appearance-inspecting device or by an optical defect-inspecting device, has a configuration wherein an optical microscope that re-detects defects is incorporated, and a spatial filter and a distribution polarization element are inserted at the pupil plane when making dark-field observations using this optical microscope. The electron microscope, which observes defects detected by an optical appearance-inspecting device or an optical defect-inspecting device, has a configuration wherein an optical microscope that re-detects defects is incorporated, and a distribution filter is inserted at the pupil plane when making dark-field observations using this optical microscope.

An internal defect inspection method where an ultrasonic wave is emitted from an ultrasonic wave transmitter toward a sample, the ultrasonic wave reflected by the sample is detected by an imaging type common-path interferometer as an interference signal, an ultrasonic wave signal is obtained from the interference signal, and any defect within the sample is detected from the ultrasonic wave signal. An internal defect inspection apparatus including an ultrasonic wave transmitter, an imaging type common-path interferometer and an ultrasonic wave signal detecting device is also provided.

Internal defect inspection method and apparatus for the same

A multi-point measuring apparatus of FBG sensor has an optical fiber, a wide-band wavelength light source, a light-source side light modulator for controlling time of a light entering into the optical fiber, among lights from this light source, a detector side light modulator for controlling time, during which a reflection light from a diffraction grating of the optical fiber penetrates through, a wavelength shift amount calculator for processing a signal obtained through detection of the reflection light from this light modulator, a temperature/distortion calculator for calculating an amount of deformation of a target to be measured from a result of this calculator, and a display portion for displaying information relating to the amount of deformation of this target to be measured.

Multi-point measuring apparatus and method of FBG sensor having multiple delaying fibers

Disclosed is a distance measuring device using an optical comb. In order for the absolute distance to an object to be measured which has a surface with low reflection ratio or a scattering surface and is approximately 10 m apart, to be easily measured with accuracy of 0.1 mm or more using an optical and contactless method, the distance measuring device which measures the distance to the object to be measured is configured such that the distance to the object to be measured is measured by comparing the phase of the beat signal between a light source and a plurality of CW lasers which are reflected or scattered by the object with the phase of the beat signal between the light source and a plurality of CW lasers prior to being irradiated onto the object.

Distance measuring device and distance measuring method

In measuring the displacement of an object using the phase-shifting light interference, since three beam splitters were used for generating the four phase-shifting optical paths, an interferometer was increased in size, whereby the application objects were limited. Also, to solve an essential problem that if there is a disturbance such as a temperature distribution, a humidity distribution, an air pressure distribution, a density distribution or an air flow change on the phase-shifting optical paths, a measurement error occurs, the four phase-shifting optical paths are produced spatially in parallel by combining a four division prism with a photonic crystal &#x3bb;/4 element and a photonic crystal polarizing element arranged like an array, constructing a small light interference displacement sensor in the invention, whereby the application objects are expanded, and the microscopic displacement or surface roughness of the object can be measured at a resolution of sub nanometer or less and with high reproducibility without influence of the disturbance.

Polarizing different phases of interfered light used in a method and apparatus for measuring displacement of a specimen

In a method and an apparatus for inspecting a thermally assisted magnetic recording head element, a specimen is mounted on a table movable in a plane of a scanning probe microscope device, evanescent light is generated from a portion of light emission of evanescent light of the specimen, scattered light of the evanescent light is detected by moving the table in the plane while a cantilever of the scanning probe microscope having a probe is vertically vibrated in the vicinity of a surface of the specimen, and an intensity distribution of the evanescent light emitted from the portion of light emission of evanescent light or a surface profile of the portion of light emission of evanescent light of the specimen is inspected using position information of generation of the evanescent light based on the detected scattered light.

Thermally assisted magnetic recording head inspection method and apparatus

There is provided a pattern inspection device for a substrate surface which can inspect a substrate including a pattern whose size is equal to or smaller than light resolution limit at high speed. The pattern inspection device for the substrate surface includes: a near-field optical headhaving a fine repetitive pattern; a &#x3b8; driving unitof scanning an inspected substraterelatively to the near-field optical head; a space holding mechanism of holding a space between the near-field optical headand the inspected substrateconstant; alight sourceof irradiating light to the near-field optical head; a detection systemof detecting an intensity of scattered light generated by interaction between the fine repetitive pattern on the near-field optical headand a fine pattern on a surface of the inspected substrate; and a signal processing unitof inspecting the fine pattern on the inspected substratebased on an output of the detection system

Pattern inspection device of substrate surface and pattern inspection method of the same

To detect both of near-field light and magnetic field generated by a thermal assist type magnetic head and to perform inspection of the head, a cantilever of a scanning probe microscope has a lever in which a probe is formed, a thin magnetic film formed on a surface of the probe, and fine particles or thin film of noble metal or an alloy including noble metal formed on a surface of the magnetic film. An inspection apparatus has the cantilever, a displacement detection unit to detect vibration of the cantilever, a near-field light detection unit to detect scattered light caused by near-field light generated from a near-field light emitter and enhanced on the surface of the probe of the cantilever, and a processing unit to process signals obtained by detection with the displacement detection unit and the near-field light detection unit.

Cantilever of scanning probe microscope and method for manufacturing the same, method for inspecting thermal assist type magnetic head device and its apparatus

In a near-field scanning microscope using an aperture probe, the upper limit of the aperture formation is at most several ten nm in practice. In a near-field scanning microscope using a scatter probe, the resolution ability is limited to at most several ten nm because of the external illuminating light serving as background noise. Moreover, measurement reproducibility is seriously lowered by a damage or abrasion of a probe. Optical data and unevenness data of the surface of a sample can be measured at a nm-order resolution ability and a high reproducibility while damaging neither the probe nor the sample by fabricating a plasmon-enhanced near-field probe having a nm-order optical resolution ability by combining a nm-order cylindrical structure with nm-order microparticles and repeatedly moving the probe toward the sample and away therefrom at a low contact force at individual measurement points on the sample.

Scanning probe microscope and sample observing method using the same

In a displacement measurement apparatus using light interference, a probe light path is spatially separated from a reference light path. Therefore, when a temperature or refractive index distribution by a fluctuation of air or the like, or a mechanical vibration is generated, an optical path difference fluctuates between both of the optical paths, and a measurement error is generated. In the solution, an optical axis of probe light is brought close to that of reference light by a distance which is not influenced by any disturbance, a sample is irradiated with the probe light, a reference surface is irradiated with the reference light, reflected light beams are allowed to interfere with each other, and a displacement of the sample is obtained from the resultant interference light to thereby prevent the measurement error from being generated by the fluctuation of the optical path difference.

Method and apparatus for measuring displacement of a sample using a wire grid polarizer to generate interference light

It has been difficult to highly accurately measure the profiles of samples using scanning probe microscopes at the time when scanning is performed due to scanning mechanism fluctuations in the non drive direction, i.e., vertical direction. The present invention is provided with, on the rear side of a sample stage, a high-accuracy displacement gauge for measuring fluctuation in the non drive direction, i.e., vertical direction, at the time when the sample stage is being scanned in the horizontal directions, and as a result, highly accurate planarity evaluation with accuracy of sample nm-order or less is made possible by correcting sample surface shape measurement results obtained using a probe.

Scanning probe microscope and surface shape measuring method using same

Optical information and topographic information of the surface of a sample are measured at a nanometer-order resolution and with high reproducibility without damaging a probe and the sample by combining a nanometer-order cylindrical structure with a nanometer-order microstructure to form a plasmon intensifying near-field probe having a nanometer-order optical resolution and by repeating approach/retreat of the probe to/from each measurement point on the sample at a low contact force.

Scanning probe microscope and method of observing sample using the same

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Masahiro Watanabe