Hitachi-High-Technologies Corporation

Takeshi Ogashiwa

Toshihide Agemura

Mitsugu Sato

Takashi Ichimura

Kenji Aoki

Yoshinobu Kimura

Atsushi Takane

Natsuki Tsuno

Sukehiro Ito

Junichi Katane

Shinichi Tomita

Kunji Shigeto

Yasuko Aoki

Masahiro Akatsu

Mitsuru Konno

Junichiro Tomizawa

Yuusuke Narita

Takeharu Shichiji

There is provided a charged particle beam apparatus capable of obtaining a high SN ratio with a small electron irradiation amount. The charged particle beam apparatus includes a charged particle detection device. The charged particle detection device detects an analog pulse waveform signal () in a detection of emitted electrons (1 event) when one primary electron enters a sample, converts the analog pulse waveform signal () into a digital signal (), perform a wave height discrimination () with the use of a unit peak corresponding electron, and outputs the digital signal () as a multilevel count value.

Charged particle bean device and information-processing device

Conventionally, in a general-purpose scanning electron microscope, the maximum accelerating voltage which can be set is low, and hence thin crystal samples which can be observed under normal high-resolution observation conditions are limited to samples with large lattice spacing. For this reason, there has no means for accurately performing magnification calibration. As means for solving this problem, the present invention includes an electron source which generates an electron beam, a deflector which deflects the electron beam so as to scan a sample with the electron beam, an objective lens which focuses the electron beam on the sample, a detector which detects an elastically scattered electron and an inelastically scattered electron which are transmitted through the sample, and an aperture disposed between the sample and the detector to control detection angles of the elastically scattered electron and the inelastically scattered electron. The electron beam enters the sample at a predetermined convergence semi-angle, and a lattice image is acquired at a second convergence semi-angle larger than a first convergence semi-angle at which a beam diameter is minimized on the sample.

Scanning electron microscope

Provided is an electron microscope on which a specimen holder to have high voltage applied is mountable. The specimen holder has safety (electric shock prevention) features, and attention is paid to the specimen holder in terms of operability. The microscope includes a specimen holder having a function of applying a voltage to a specimen mount disposed to load a specimen, a voltage source that supplies the voltage to be applied to the specimen mount, a voltage cable connected at one end thereof to the specimen holder, and a relay unit to which the other end of the voltage cable is connected, the relay unit being placed on a supporting base that supports a lens barrel of the electron microscope.

Electron microscope

The present invention provides a charged particle beam device in which signal electrons () are generated from a sample when the sample () is irradiated with a primary charged particle beam (), and then enter different positions of a position-sensitive signal detector () in accordance with energy of the signal electrons (), whereby an energy distribution image of the signal electrons generated from the sample is acquired. Accordingly, it becomes possible to discriminate and select signal electrons having arbitrary energy to thereby obtain an image to which information specific to the arbitrary energy is reflected, and to acquire various characteristic information of the sample.

Charged particle beam device

Disclosed herein is a scanning electron microscope having a function for positioning an object point of an objective lens at a defined position even under an electronic optical condition in which it is difficult to accurately control the position of the object point of the objective lens. A deflector is provided to deflect an electron beam in order to detect the object point and located at a desired position of the object point of the objective lens. The deflector is not used to scan a sample with the electron beam. The scanning electron microscope has a function for automatically adjusting the position of the object point to ensure that the object point of the objective lens is located at the position of the object point detection deflector by using a characteristic in which a displacement of an image by the deflector is minimal when the object point is located at the position of the deflector.

Charged particle beam apparatus

A charged particle beam apparatus facilitating adjusting a beam center axis of a charged particle beam in a case where optical conditions are modified or in a case where the beam center axis of the charged particle beam is moved due to state variation of the apparatus. When the beam center axis of a primary charged particle beam is adjusted with a deflector (aligner), a first processing step for measuring the sensitivity of the aligner and a second processing step for detecting the deviation between the center of the primary charged particle beam and the center of the objective aperture are provided. The charged particle beam apparatus determines the aligner set values, using the aligner sensitivity measured in the first processing step and the amount of deviation detected in the second processing step, such that the primary charged particle beam passes through the center of the objective aperture and controls the aligner using the aligner set values.

Charged particle beam apparatus and method for charged particle beam adjustment

An electron beam device includes an electron gun section having an internal space kept at an ultrahigh vacuum level for generating a primary electron beam, a mirror section having an internal space kept at a vacuum level lower than that of the electron gun section for scanning a specimen with an electron probe of the primary electron beam generated in the electron gun section and focused on the specimen, a differential exhaust diaphragm for providing communication in internal space between the electron gun section and the mirror section and passing the primary electron beam, and a control section for controlling respective constituent elements in the electron beam device. A diaphragm mechanism having a plurality of different diaphragm aperture diameters is provided between a second anode and a first condenser lens.

Growing community of inventors

Hitachinaka, Japan

Takeshi Ogashiwa