Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Hitachi High-tech Corporation

Osamu Komuro

Satoru Yamaguchi

Fumihiro Sasajima

Hidetoshi Morokuma

Takashi Iizumi

Fumio Mizuno

Yasuhiko Ozawa

Tatsuya Maeda

Atsuko Yamaguchi

Juntaro Arima

Chie Shishido

Hiroki Kawada

Hiroshi Fukuda

Zhaohui Cheng

Hideo Todokoro

Maki Tanaka

Hiroyuki Shinada

Yasunari Sohda

Yoshinobu Kimura

Tsuneo Terasawa

Tadashi Otaka

Atsushi Takane

Akiyuki Sugiyama

Osamu Inoue

Takeyoshi Ohashi

Osamu Nasu

Yoshihiro Kimura

Hikaru Koyama

Katsumi Setoguchi

Masahiro Watanabe

Yuji Takagi

Muneyuki Fukuda

Hajime Kawano

Yasuhiro Yoshitake

Shunichi Matsumoto

Masashi Fujita

Ryo Nakagaki

Mitsuji Ikeda

Naoshi Itabashi

Noritsugu Takahashi

Kei Sakai

Masakazu Takahashi

Miyako Matsui

Kazuyuki Hirao

Junichi Taguchi

Hiromasa Yamanashi

Takahiro Kawasaki

Makoto Nishihara

Takashi Takahama

Norio Satou

Masumi Shirai

Hitoshi Namai

Yuuji Takagi

Hiroyuki Matsui

Katsuaki Abe

Kenichi Nishigata

Ichiro Miyano

Provided is an electromagnetic field shielding plate, etc., in which it is possible to reduce weight while achieving high shielding performance from relatively high-frequency electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic field shielding plate is configured by layering a permalloy layercomprising a plate or sheet of permalloy, and an amorphous layercomprising an Fe&#x2014;Si&#x2014;B&#x2014;Cu&#x2014;Nb-based amorphous plate or sheet.

Electromagnetic field shielding plate, method for manufacturing same, electromagnetic field shielding structure, and semiconductor manufacturing environment

A scanning electron microscope of the present invention performs scanning by changing a scanning line density in accordance with a sample when an image of a scanned region is formed by scanning a two-dimensional region on the sample with an electron beam or is provided with a GUI having sample information input means which inputs information relating to the sample and display means which displays a recommended scanning condition according to the input and performs scanning with a scanning line density according to the sample by selecting the recommended scanning condition. As a result, in observation using a scanning electron microscope, a suitable scanning device which can improve contrast of a profile of a two-dimensional pattern and suppress shading by suppressing the influence of charging caused by primary charged particle radiation and by improving a detection rate of secondary electrons and a scanning method are provided.

Scanning electron microscope and sample observation method

The purpose of the present invention is to provide an overlay error measuring device which measures an overlay error with high accuracy even when a lower layer pattern is disposed under a thin film and a sufficient signal amount cannot be ensured. The present invention proposes an overlay error measuring device provided with an arithmetic processing unit for measuring a pattern formed on a sample on the basis of a signal waveform obtained by a charged particle beam device. The arithmetic processing unit finds a correlation with the signal waveform using a partial waveform obtained on the basis of partial extraction of the signal waveform, forms a correlation profile indicating the correlation, and measures an overlay error using the correlation profile.

Overlay error measuring device and computer program for causing computer to measure pattern

A scanning electron microscope of the present invention performs scanning by changing a scanning line density in accordance with a sample when an image of a scanned region is formed by scanning a two-dimensional region on the sample with an electron beam or is provided with a GUI having sample information input means which inputs information relating to the sample and display means which displays a recommended scanning conditioHn according to the input and performs scanning with a scanning line density according to the sample by selecting the recommended scanning condition. As a result, in observation using a scanning electron microscope, a suitable scanning device which can improve contrast of a profile of a two-dimensional pattern and suppress shading by suppressing the influence of charging caused by primary charged particle radiation and by improving a detection rate of secondary electrons and a scanning method are provided.

An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus that quickly and precisely measures or evaluates a distortion in a field of view and a charged particle beam apparatus. To attain the object, an image processing apparatus or the like is proposed which acquires a first image of a first area of an imaging target and a second image of a second area that is located at a different position than the first area and partially overlaps with the first area and determines the distance between a measurement point in the second image and a second part of the second image that corresponds to a particular area for a plurality of sites in the overlapping area of the first image and the second image.

Image processing device, charged particle beam device, charged particle beam device adjustment sample, and manufacturing method thereof

This charged-particle beam device changes conditions for combining an intensity ratio between upper and lower deflectors and rotation angles of the deflectors in multiple ways when obtaining images having different pixel sizes in the vertical and horizontal directions. Then, the charged-particle beam device determines an optimal intensity ratio between the upper and lower deflectors and rotation angles of the deflectors on the basis of variations in size value measured in the larger pixel size direction (Y-direction) of the image. As a result, it is possible to extend the field of view in the Y-direction while reducing deflection aberrations when measuring at high precision in the X-direction.

Charged-particle beam device

In an image forming apparatus and a computer program, extraction of information about distortion in a charged particle beam scan area can be implemented. An image forming apparatus integrates image data obtained by a charged particle beam apparatus and calculates, from a plurality of images with different scan directions of the charged particle beam apparatus, first information about the amount of change in a feature quantity in accordance with the time of irradiation of the charged particle beam, second information about the amount of change in the feature quantity before and after a change in beam scan direction, and/or third information about a position error of a pattern on the image before and after the change in beam scan direction.

Image forming device and computer program

Provided is a charged particle beam apparatus adapted so that even when an additional device is not mounted in the charged particle beam apparatus, the apparatus rapidly removes, by neutralizing, a local charge developed on a region of a sample that has been irradiated with a charged particle beam. After charged particle beam irradiation for measurement of the sample, the apparatus controls a retarding voltage or/and an accelerating voltage at a stage previous to a next measurement, and then neutralizes an electric charge by reducing a difference between a value of the retarding voltage and that of the accelerating voltage to a value smaller than during the currently ongoing measurement. The charged particle beam achieves neutralizing without reducing throughput, since the local charge developed on the region of the sample that has been irradiated with the charged particle beam is removed, even without an additional device mounted in the apparatus.

Charged particle beam apparatus for removing charges developed on a region of a sample

In a scanning electron microscope, if a failure is caused to occur in a SEM image by the influence of a disturbance such as magnetic field or vibration inside and from outside the device, the cause is identified simply and accurately using this SEM image. There is provided a measurement technique whose measurement accuracy is not influenced by a roughness of SEM image pattern. A one-dimensional scanning is performed in a scanning-line direction (X direction) by setting the Y-direction scanning gain at zero at the time of acquiring the SEM image, and a two-dimensional image is created by arranging image information, which is obtained by the scanning, in a time-series manner in the Y direction. A shift-amount data on the two-dimensional image is acquired using a correlation function, and the magnetic field or vibration included within the SEM image is measured by a frequency analysis of the data.

Charged particle beam device, and image analysis device

An object of the present invention is to provide an edge detection technique and equipment which are capable of stably detecting an edge by suppressing the influence of noise even in the case where the image is obtained by charged particle radiation equipment, such as a scanning electron microscope and has a low S/N ratio. More specifically, the present invention is to propose a technique and equipment which are configured to determine a peak position (edge) on the basis of the following two edge extraction techniques. That is, the present invention is to propose a technique and equipment wherein at least two peaks are formed by using, as edge detection techniques, for example, one peak detection technique having a relatively high sensitivity and the other peak detection technique which is relatively less susceptible to the influence of noise than the one peak detection technique, and wherein a position where the peaks coincide with each other is determined as a true peak position (edge position).

Edge detection technique and charged particle radiation equipment

Provided is a scanning electron microscope equipped with a high-speed and high-precision astigmatism measuring means to be used when both astigmatism generated by an electron-beam column and astigmatism generated from the surroundings of a measuring sample exist. This scanning electron microscope is characterized in controlling an astigmatism corrector () with high-speed and high-precision, to correct the astigmatism, by using both a method of obtaining the astigmatism from the qualities of two-dimensional images to be acquired upon changing the intensity of the astigmatism corrector (), and a method of measuring the astigmatism from the change in the position displacement of an electron beam that occurs when the electron beam is tilted using a tilt deflector ().

Scanning electron microscope

An object of the present invention is to provide a scanning electron microscope for reducing a process concerning inspection positioning or an input operation, thereby functioning with high precision at high speed. To accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a scanning electron microscope having a function for identifying a desired position on the basis of a pattern registered beforehand, which includes a means for setting information concerning the pattern kind, the interval between a plurality of parts constituting the pattern, and the size of parts constituting the pattern and a means for forming a pattern image composed of a plurality of parts on the basis of the information obtained by the concerned means.

A charged particle beam system wherein the output of the secondary electron detector is detected while the retarding voltage is varied between the values for which the secondary electrons do not reach the sample and the values for which the secondary electrons reach the sample, and the surface potential of the sample is determined on the basis of the relationship between the retarding voltage and the detected output of the secondary electron detector.

Charged particle beam system

The edges of the reticle are detected with respect to the microstructured patterns exposed by the stepper, and the shapes of the microstructured patterns at the surface and at the bottom of the photoresist are detected. The microstructured patterns are evaluated by calculating, and displaying on the screen, the dislocation vector that represents the relationship in position between the detected patterns on the surface and at the bottom of the photoresist. Furthermore, dislocation vectors between the microstructured patterns at multiple positions in a single-chip or single-shot area or on one wafer are likewise calculated, then the sizes and distribution status of the dislocation vectors at each such position are categorized as characteristic quantities, and the corresponding tendencies are analyzed. Thus, stepper or wafer abnormality is detected.

Microstructured pattern inspection method

A matching degree computing apparatus is provided for comparing an input image and an object template image and computing a matching degree between an input image and an object template image based on the compared result. The computing apparatus includes a transforming unit for transforming the input image so as to be matched to the template object region and a computing unit for computing a matching degree between the transformed input image and the template image. The transforming unit provides a shaping unit for shaping a non-background region to the form of the template object region in the object corresponding region of the input image and a processing unit for arranging the non-background region contacting with the template object corresponding region so that the non-background region has no substantial impact on the matching degree in the object non-corresponding region of the input image.

Method and apparatus for computing degree of matching

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Hitachinaka, Japan

Osamu Komuro