Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Mikio Ichihashi

Hideo Todokoro

Satoru Fukuhara

Mitsugu Sato

Yutaka Kaneko

Hiroyuki Shinada

Yasutsugu Usami

Atsuko Takafuji

Hiroshi Toyama

Katsuya Sugiyama

Yuko Iwabuchi

Hiroyoshi Mori

Shigeto Isakozawa

Hisaya Murakoshi

Hiroshi Kakibayashi

Kuniyasu Nakamura

Yuji Sato

Masanari Koguchi

Hironobu Matsui

Tadashi Otaka

Kazutaka Tsuji

Katsuhiro Kuroda

Yasuhiro Mitsui

Yoshifumi Taniguchi

Tatsuo Makishima

Yoshinori Nakayama

Kazue Takahashi

Kensuke Sekihara

Shigeyuki Hosoki

Masahide Okumura

Ruriko Tsuneta

Toshiaki Kobari

Masakazu Ichikawa

Shinjiroo Ueda

Jun Motoike

Takahito Hashimoto

Masanari Kouguchi

Kenji Odaka

Shunji Maeda

Ryo Suzuki

Kaoru Umemura

Yusuke Yajima

Hitoshi Kubota

Kenichi Yamamoto

Yukio Honda

Sumio Hosaka

Akira Shimase

Hidemi Koike

Tsuyoshi Hasegawa

Masatoshi Takeshita

Shinji Okazaki

Takashi Onishi

Fumikazu Itoh

Satoshi Haraichi

Hiroyasu Kaga

Hidehito Obayashi

Keiji Tamura

Shunichi Watanabe

Keiji Takata

Hiroshi Hirose

Toshiyuki Ohashi

Toshiro Kubo

Motohide Ukiana

Shigemitsu Seitoh

Yoshimasa Kondo

Hideo Tadokoro

Shiji Okazaki

The present invention has an object to provide a cold cathode field-emission electron gun with low aberration, to thereby provide a high-brightness electron gun even in the case of a large current. The present invention provides a field-emission electron gun which extracts an electron beam from a cathode and converges the extracted electron beam, the field-emission electron gun including: a magnetic field lens which is provided such that the cathode is disposed inside of a magnetic field of the lens; and an extraction electrode for extracting electrons from the cathode, the extraction electrode being formed into a cylindrical shape without an aperture structure. The present invention can provide an electron gun having a function of converging an electron beam using a magnetic field, the electron gun which is capable of reducing an incidental electrostatic lens action and has small aberration and high brightness.

Electron gun

The inspection apparatus disclosed generates an electron beam, an acceleration electrode accelerates the electron beam, a convergence lens converges the electron beam, an electron beam deflector scans the beam over a sample, an objective lens converges the electron beam on the sample, a detector located between the sample and the objective lens detects charged particles emitted from the sample, a power supply applies a retarding voltage to the sample for decelerating the electron beam to the sample, an electrode is disposed between the objective lens and the sample, and a voltage is generated between the sample and the electrode by said electrode, the voltage being determined depending on the sample. The apparatus solves problems encountered in conventional inspection systems.

Method and an apparatus of an inspection system using an electron beam

Problems encountered in the conventional inspection method and the conventional apparatus adopting the method are solved by the present invention using an electron beam by providing a novel inspection method and an inspection apparatus adopting the novel method which are capable of increasing the speed to scan a specimen such as a semiconductor wafer. The inspection novel method provided by the present invention comprises the steps of: generating an electron beam; converging the generated electron beam on a specimen by using an objective lens; scanning the specimen by using the converged electron beam; continuously moving the specimen during scanning; detecting charged particles emanating from the specimen at a location between the specimen and the objective lens and converting the detected charged particles into an electrical signal; storing picture information conveyed by the electrical signal; comparing a picture with another by using the stored picture information; and detecting a defect of the specimen.

Method and apparatus of an inspection system using an electron beam

A method and apparatus for measuring the physical properties of a micro region measures the two-dimensional distribution of stress/strain in real time at high resolution and sensitivity and with a high level of measuring position matching. A sample is scanned and irradiated with a finely focused electron beam (), and the displacement of position of a diffraction spot () is measured by a two-dimensional position-sensitive electron detector (). The displacement amount is outputted as a voltage value that is then converted into the magnitude of the stress/strain according to the principle of a nano diffraction method, and the magnitude is displayed in synchronism with a sample position signal.

Method and apparatus for measuring the physical properties of micro region

Method and apparatus for measuring physical properties of micro region

A scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) has an electron source for generating a primary electron beam and an electron illuminating lens system for converging the primary electron beam from the electron source onto a specimen for illumination. An electron deflecting system is provided for scanning the specimen with the primary electron beam. The STEM also has a scattered electron detector for detecting scattered electrons transmitted through the specimen. A projection lens system projects the scattered electrons onto a detection surface of the scattered electron detector. An image displaying device displays the scanning transmission electron microscope image of the specimen using a detection signal from the scattered electron detector. A detection angle changing device for establishes the range of the scattering angle of the scattered electrons detected by the scattered electron detector. This structure enhances the contrast of a desired portion of the specimen under observation for a scanning transmitted image by selective establishment of detection angle ranges for the scattered electron detector.

Method and apparatus for scanning transmission electron microscopy

Disclosed is an observation apparatus and method using an electron beam, capable of measuring stress and strain information on a crystal structure in a specimen using electron beam diffraction images. A method according to the invention includes mounting a specimen on a specimen stage; irradiating a predetermined area in the specimen with an electron beam while scanning the electron beam, and acquiring an enlarged image of a specimen internal structure in the predetermined area; irradiating a specific portion included in the predetermined area and acquiring a diffraction image showing the crystal structure in the specimen; extracting information on the crystal structure in the specimen; displaying the information of the crystal structure in the specimen so as to be superimposed on the acquired enlarged image. The observation method according to the invention can obtain information on the crystal structure in a specimen with a high degree of sensitivity and with a high level of resolution.

Observation apparatus and observation method using an electron beam

An object of the present invention is to provide an inspection method using an electron beam and an inspection apparatus therefor, which are capable of enhancing the resolution, improving the inspection speed and reliability, and realizing miniaturization the apparatus. To achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided an inspection method using an electron beam, including the steps of; applying a voltage on a sample via a sample stage; converging an electron beam on the sample; scanning the sample with the converged electron beam and simultaneously, continuously moving the sample stage; detecting charged particles generated from the sample; and detecting a defect on the sample on the basis of the detected charged particles; wherein a distance between the sample and the shield frame is determined on the basis of a critical discharge between the sample stage and the shield frame; coils of at least hexapoles for correcting the shape of an electron beam are provided; the electron beam is deflected for blanking during movement of the sample with the crossover of the electron beam taken as a fulcrum of blanking; or the magnitude of the voltage applied to the sample may be determined depending on the kind of sample.

Method and apparatus for inspecting patterns of a semiconductor device with an electron beam

Problems encountered in the conventional inspection method and the conventional apparatus adopting the method are solved by the present invention using an electron beam by providing a novel inspection method and an inspection apparatus adopting the novel method which are capable of increasing the speed to scan a specimen such as a semiconductor wafer. The novel inspection method provided by the present invention comprises the steps of: generating an electron beam; converging the generated electron beam on a specimen by using an objective lens; scanning the specimen by using the converged electron beam; continuously moving the specimen during scanning; detecting charged particles emanating from the specimen at a location between the specimen and the objective lens and converting the detected charged particles into an electrical signal; storing picture information conveyed by the electrical signal; comparing a picture with another by using the stored picture information; and detecting a defect of the specimen.

Growing community of inventors

Kodaira, Japan

Mikio Ichihashi