Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Other

Hitachi-science Systems, Ltd.

Tadashi Otaka

Hideo Todokoro

Mitsugu Sato

Takashi Iizumi

Atsushi Takane

Makoto Ezumi

Satoru Yamaguchi

Satoru Yamada

Tokuo Kure

Katsuhiro Kuroda

Fumio Mizuno

Ken Ninomiya

Kenji Takamoto

Hiroki Kawada

Kazutaka Nimura

Sadao Terakado

Yuya Toyoshima

Yoichi Ose

Tohru Ishitani

Yasutsugu Usami

Yasuhiro Mitsui

Mikio Ichihashi

Shunroku Taya

Isao Kawata

Yoshimi Kawanami

Hiroyuki Ito

Kazue Takahashi

Tsuneo Terasawa

Osamu Komuro

Shoji Yoshida

Tatsuya Maeda

Yasuhiko Ozawa

Katsuhiro Sasada

Akio Yoneyama

Atsuko Yamaguchi

Ritsuo Fukaya

Osamu Nasu

Sho Takami

Atsushi Kobaru

Toshiaki Kobari

Shinjiroo Ueda

Shunichi Watanabe

Nobuyuki Iriki

Hironobu Matsui

Masanori Gunji

Goroku Shimoma

Tadanori Takahashi

Minoru Shimizu

Kenji Odaka

Masahiro Kawawa

Terumichi Nishino

Chie Shishido

Kouichi Nagai

Hajime Kawano

Ryo Nakagaki

Kenji Watanabe

Kazunori Hashimoto

Yuko Sasaki

Eiichi Hazaki

Masakazu Takahashi

Osamu Yamada

Shohei Terada

Kazutoshi Kaji

Shinjiro Ueda

Hiroshi Iwamoto

Tsutomu Komoda

Hiroyoshi Mori

Manabu Yano

Akimitsu Okura

Ryoichi Ishii

Yoshitsugu Tsutsumi

Issei Tobita

Manabu Shirakihara

An exemplary a charged particle beam apparatus converts an inspection position on a test sample (wafer coordinate system) to a setting position of an inspection mechanism (stage coordinate system (polar coordinate system)), a rotating arm and a rotating stage being rotated to be moved for the inspection position on the test sample. In this case, inspection devices are arranged over a locus that is drawn by the center of the rotating stage according to the rotation of the rotating arm. A function for calculating errors (e.g., center shift of the rotating stage) and compensating for the errors is provided, by which the precision of inspection is improved in a charged particle beam apparatus equipped with a biaxial rotating stage mechanism.

Charged particle beam apparatus

A charged particle beam apparatus can be constructed with a smaller size (resulting in a small installation space) and a lower cost, suppress vibration, operate at higher speed, and be reliable in inspection. The charged particle beam apparatus is largely effective when a wafer having a large diameter is used. The charged particle beam apparatus includes: a plurality of inspection mechanisms, each of which is mounted on a vacuum chamber and has a charged particle beam mechanism for performing at least an inspection on the sample; a single-shaft transfer mechanism that moves the sample between the inspection mechanisms in the direction of an axis of the single-shaft transfer mechanism; and a rotary stage that mounts the sample thereon and has a rotational axis on the single-shaft transfer mechanism. The single-shaft transfer mechanism moves the sample between the inspection mechanisms in order that the sample is placed under any of the inspection mechanisms. The rotary stage positions the sample such that a target portion of the sample can be inspected by the inspection mechanism under which the sample is placed, and the inspection mechanisms inspect the sample.

The present invention suppresses decreases in the volumes of the patterns which have been formed on the surfaces of semiconductor samples or of the like, or performs accurate length measurements, irrespective of such decreases. In an electrically charged particle ray apparatus by which the line widths and other length data of the patterns formed on samples are to be measured by scanning the surface of each sample with electrically charged particle rays and detecting the secondary electrons released from the sample, the scanning line interval of said electrically charged particle rays is set so as not to exceed the irradiation density dictated by the physical characteristics of the sample. Or measured length data is calculated from prestored approximation functions.

Sample dimension measuring method and scanning electron microscope

An object of the present invention is to suppress measurement errors caused by the fact that the shrink amount due to scan of an electron beam differs pattern by pattern. To accomplish this object, according to the invention, functions indicative of a process of change of pattern dimension when the electron beam is irradiated on a sample are prepared in respect of the kinds of sample patterns, and dimension values of a particular pattern measured by scanning the electron beam on the particular pattern are fitted to a function prepared for the particular pattern to calculate a dimension of the particular pattern before it changes.

An invention providing a scanning electron microscope composed of a monochromator capable of high resolution, monochromatizing the energy and reducing chromatic aberrations without significantly lowering the electrical current strength of the primary electron beam. A scanning electron microscope is installed with a pair of sectorial magnetic and electrical fields having opposite deflection directions to focus the electron beam and then limit the energy width by means of slits, and another pair of sectorial magnetic and electrical fields of the same shape is installed at a position forming a symmetrical mirror versus the surface containing the slits. This structure acts to cancel out energy dispersion at the object point and symmetrical mirror positions, and by spatially contracting the point-converged spot beam with a converging lens system, improves the image resolution of the scanning electron microscope.

Monochromator and scanning electron microscope using the same

Image evaluation method capable of objectively evaluating the image resolution of a microscope image. An image resolution method is characterized in that resolution in partial regions of an image is obtained over an entire area of the image or a portion of the image, averaging is performed over the entire area of the image or the portion of the image, and the averaged value is established as the resolution evaluation value of the entire area of the image or the portion of the image. This method eliminates the subjective impressions of the evaluator from evaluation of microscope image resolution, so image resolution evaluation values of high accuracy and good repeatability can be obtained.

Image evaluation method and microscope

An object of the present invention is to provide a sample image forming method and a charged particle beam apparatus which are suitable for realizing suppressing of the view area displacement with high accuracy while the influence of charging due to irradiation of the charged particle beam is being suppressed. In order to attain the above object, the present invention provide a method of forming a sample image by scanning a charged particle beam on a sample and forming an image based on secondary signals emitted from the sample, the method comprising the steps of forming a plurality of composite images by superposing a plurality of images obtained by a plurality of scanning times; and forming a further composite image by correcting positional displacements among the plurality of composite images and superposing the plurality of composite images, and a charged particle beam apparatus for realizing the above method.

Method of forming a sample image and charged particle beam apparatus

Method for measuring dimensions of sample and scanning electron microscope

An object of the present invention is to provide a charged particle beam apparatus and an alignment method of the charged particle beam apparatus, which make it possible to align an optical axis of a charged particle beam easily even when a state of the charged particle beam changes. The present invention comprises calculation means for calculating a deflection amount of an alignment deflector which performs an axis alignment for an objective lens, a plurality of calculation methods for calculating the deflection amount is memorized in the calculation means, and a selection means for selecting at least one of the calculation methods is provided.

Charged particle beam alignment method and charged particle beam apparatus

A method and apparatus for efficiently executing two types of measurements with an optical measuring device and a scanning electron microscope are provided. For example, the method and apparatus may execute the following steps: calculating an average of the dimensional values of a plurality of scanned feature objects; and calculating an offset of a dimensional value on the basis of a difference between the calculated average value and the dimensional value of the feature object obtained when the light is irradiated. The offset between measurement values between the optical measuring device and the scanning electron microscope can be determined precisely.

Sample dimension-measuring method and charged particle beam apparatus

A width-measurement method of reducing or eliminating an error in measurement of a width of an object on a sample resulting from the dimension of the beam diameter, wherein a width-measured value of the object to be width-measured which has been obtained on the basis of a secondary signal obtained from secondary particles emitted from the sample having thereon the object to be width-measured is corrected with a value with respect to a dimension value of a beam diameter.

Method and scanning electron microscope for measuring width of material on sample

A system for measuring a pattern on a sample, including: a data processing system that processes a set of two-dimensional distribution data of intensities from the sample, to calculate: a set of edge points indicative of position of edges of the pattern in a two-dimensional plane from the two-dimensional distribution data; an approximation edge indicative of the edge of the pattern; an edge fluctuation data by calculating a difference between the set of edge points and the approximation edge; and a correlation between a first portion of the edge fluctuation data and a second portion of the edge fluctuation data.

Method and apparatus for circuit pattern inspection

Growing community of inventors

Hitachinaka, Japan

Tadashi Otaka