Hitachi High-Tech Corporation

Hitachi-High-Technologies Corporation

Hitachi, Ltd.

Natsuki Tsuno

Yohei Nakamura

Muneyuki Fukuda

Heita Kimizuka

Takafumi Miwa

Yoshinobu Kimura

Yasuhiro Shirasaki

Minami Shouji

Hideyuki Kazumi

Toshihide Agemura

Satoshi Takada

Daisuke Bizen

Masahiro Sasajima

Naomasa Suzuki

Hiroya Ohta

Katsura Takaguchi

Hajime Kawano

Mitsuhiro Nakamura

Toshiyuki Yokosuka

Yuki Mori

Makoto Sakakibara

Zhaohui Cheng

Toshiyuki Ohno

Renichi Yamada

Junichiro Tomizawa

Junichi Tanaka

Yoichi Ose

Hiroshi Makino

Momoyo Enyama

Hirotaka Hamamura

Eiko Nakazawa

Tomoyasu Shojo

Shoji Hotta

Tsutomu Saito

Mami Konomi

Nobuhiro Okai

Shunya Watanabe

Takashi Furukawa

Takeshi Ogashiwa

Ryoko Araki

Naoko Takeda

Yuzuru Mochizuki

Hiroyuki Okino

Yuto Hattori

Hironori Itabashi

Hirofumi Satou

Shota Mitsugi

Junichi Fuse

Atsushi Okita

A system is provided in which electrical characteristics of an element formed on a sample can be evaluated. In order to achieve the above-described object, disclosed is a system including: an image acquisition tool; and a computer system that includes one or more processors and is configured to be communicable with the image acquisition tool, in which electrical characteristic are derived by receiving information regarding two or more characteristics of a specific pattern that is included in a plurality of images acquired from the image acquisition tool under at least two different image acquisition conditions and by referring to, for the information, relation information between information regarding two or more characteristics and electrical characteristics of an element formed on a sample, the characteristics being extracted from at least two pieces of image data acquired from the image acquisition tool under at least two image acquisition conditions.

System for deriving electrical characteristics and non-transitory computer-readable medium

Provided is a technique and the like capable of specifying irradiation areas or irradiation positions of a beam and a light as clearly as possible. A charged particle beam apparatusincludes: a position adjustment markprovided on a stageand irradiated with a beam bl and a light a; and a mechanism setting an irradiation position of the beam bl and an irradiation position of the light awith respect to the stageand changing a relative positional relationship including a distance between the irradiation position of the light aand the stage. A computer systemgenerates a first image in which the position adjustment markis reflected based on a first detection signal obtained by irradiating the position adjustment markwith the beam b, generates a second image in which an irradiation area of the light ais reflected in the vicinity of the position adjustment markbased on a second detection signal obtained by irradiating the position adjustment markwith the light a, and adjusts an irradiation position of the beam band an irradiation position of the light abased on the first image and the second image obtained when a positional relationship is changed by the mechanism.

Charged particle beam apparatus

A charged particle optical system scans a sample with a pulsed charged particle beam and detects secondary charged particles; and a scan image is formed. Control is carried out so that a deflection signal for deflecting the charged particle beam in a first direction, a first timing for pulsed irradiation, a second timing for pulsed irradiation, and a third timing for detection of the secondary charged particles are synchronized. When the deflection amount of the charged particle beam in the time period of the first timing corresponds to the coordinates of n pixels in the scan image, the same line is scanned m times (m<n) while shifting the first timing with respect to the deflection signal so that a location irradiated with the charged particle beam by each scanning has different pixel coordinates. The pixel values at pixel coordinates where a signal is defective are restored.

Charged particle beam device and sample observation method

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a system for deriving a type of defect of a semiconductor element and a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The system receives, from the image acquisition tool, image data obtained by sequentially irradiating a plurality of patterns provided on the semiconductor wafer with a beam and extracts characteristics of the plurality of patterns sequentially irradiated with a beam from the received image data, the characteristics being included in the image data, or receives characteristics of the plurality of patterns sequentially irradiated with a beam from the image acquisition tool, the characteristics being extracted from the image data (Step), and derives (Step) a type of a defect by referring to (Step) related information for the characteristics of the plurality of patterns, the related information storing the characteristics of the plurality of patterns and types of defects in association with each other.

A semiconductor inspection devicehaving a first measurement mode and a second measurement mode includes: an electron optical system configured to irradiate a sample with an electron beam; an optical system configured to irradiate the sample with light; an electron detector configured to detect a signal electron; a photodetectorconfigured to detect signal light; a control unitconfigured to control the electron optical system and the optical system such that an electron beam and light are emitted under a first irradiation condition in the first measurement mode, and to control the electron optical system and the optical system such that an electron beam and light are emitted under a second irradiation condition in the second measurement mode; and a computer configured to process a detection signal from the electron detector or the photodetector.

Semiconductor inspection device and method for inspecting semiconductor sample

A control device controls a contact probe in synchronization with a pulse-controlled light having a predetermined wavelength, a measurement instrument measures a characteristic of a sample to be inspected or an analysis sample, and a circuit constant or a defect structure of the sample to be inspected is estimated based on a circuit model created by an electric characteristic analysis device configured to generate the circuit model based on a value measured by the measurement instrument and a detection signal of secondary electrons detected by the charged particle beam device.

Inspection method

The present disclosure hereinafter proposes a charged particle beam device and a method for adjusting a charged particle beam device which aim to appropriately set device conditions independently of a state of a sample. The present disclosure proposes a method and a system for adjusting contrast and brightness of an image, comprising: adjusting offset (step) of a signal processing device of the charged particle beam device so that the brightness of a pattern in an image obtained by scanning with a first charged particle beam (first intermittent condition beam) becomes a predetermined value; and adjusting a gain (step) of the signal processing device so that the brightness of a pattern in an image obtained by scanning with a second charged particle beam, which is a pulse beam (second intermittent condition beam) different from the first charged particle beam in at least one of irradiation time, irradiation distance, interval time between irradiation points, and distance between irradiation points, becomes a predetermined value.

Adjusting method of charged particle beam device and charged particle beam device system

An object of the invention is to provide a charged particle beam device capable of increasing the contrast of an observation image of a sample as much as possible in accordance with light absorption characteristics that change for each optical parameter. The charged particle beam device according to the invention changes an optical parameter such as a polarization plane of light emitted to the sample, and generates the observation image having a contrast corresponding to the changed optical parameter. An optical parameter that maximizes a light absorption coefficient of the sample is specified according to a feature amount of a shape pattern of the sample (refer to FIG.).

Charged particle beam device

A system in which electrical characteristics of an element formed on a sample can be evaluated. The system includes an image acquisition tool and a computer system that includes one or more processors and is configured to be communicable with the image acquisition tool. Electrical characteristic are derived by the image acquisition tool by receiving information regarding two or more characteristics of a specific pattern that is included in a plurality of images acquired from the image acquisition tool under at least two different image acquisition conditions and by referring to, for the information, relation information between information regarding two or more characteristics and electrical characteristics of an element formed on a sample, the characteristics being extracted from at least two pieces of image data acquired from the image acquisition tool under at least two image acquisition conditions.

A computing unit generates a to-be-used-in-computation netlist on the basis of a to-be-used-in-calculation device model corresponding to a correction sample, estimates a first application result, on the basis of the to-be-used-in-computation netlist and an optical condition, when a charged particle beam is applied to the correction sample under the optical condition, compares the first application result and a second application result based on a detection signal when the charged particle beam is applied to the correction sample under the optical condition, and corrects the optical condition when the first application result and the second application result differ from each other.

An object of the present disclosure is to provide a system for deriving a type of a defect of a semiconductor element and a non-transitory computer-readable medium. The system receives, from the image acquisition tool, image data obtained by sequentially irradiating a plurality of patterns provided on the semiconductor wafer with a beam and extracts characteristics of the plurality of patterns sequentially irradiated with a beam from the received image data, the characteristics being included in the image data, or receives characteristics of the plurality of patterns sequentially irradiated with a beam from the image acquisition tool, the characteristics being extracted from the image data (Step), and derives (Step) a type of a defect by referring to (Step) related information for the characteristics of the plurality of patterns, the related information storing the characteristics of the plurality of patterns and types of defects in association with each other.

A charged particle beam apparatus includes a database that stores a to-be-used-in-calculation device model for use in estimation of a circuit of a sample and an optical condition under which a charged particle beam is applied to the sample, a charged particle beam optical system that controls the beam applied to the sample under the optical condition, a detector that detects secondary electrons emitted from the sample excited by the application of the beam and outputs a detection signal based on the secondary electrons, and a computing unit that generates a to-be-used-in-computation netlist based on the to-be-used-in-calculation device model, estimates a first application result when the beam is applied to the sample based on the to-be-used-in-computation netlist and the optical condition, and compares the first application result with a second application result when the beam is applied to the sample based on the optical condition.

A method of detecting a defect in a device using a charged particle beam includes inputting a charged particle beam condition, a light condition, and electronic device circuit information, controlling a charged particle beam applied to a sample based on the electron beam condition, controlling light applied to the sample based on the light condition, detecting second electrons emitted from the sample by the application of the charged particle beam and the light, and generating a calculation netlist based on the electronic device circuit information, generating a light irradiation netlist based on the calculation netlist and the light condition, estimating a first irradiation result when the charged particle beam and the light are applied to the sample based on the light irradiation netlist and the charged particle beam condition, and comparing the first irradiation result with a second irradiation result when the charged particle beam and the light are actually applied to the sample based on the electron beam condition.

Device defect detection method using a charged particle beam

An object of the invention is to provide a charged particle beam device capable of specifying an irradiation position of light on a sample when there is no mechanism for forming an image of backscattered electrons. The charged particle beam device according to the invention determines whether an irradiation position of a primary charged particle beam and an irradiation position of light match based on a difference between a first observation image acquired when the sample is irradiated with only the primary charged particle beam and a second observation image acquired when sample is irradiated with the light in addition to the primary charged particle beam. It is determined whether the irradiation position of the primary charged particle beam and the irradiation position of the light match using the first observation image and a measurement result by a light amount measuring device.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Natsuki Tsuno