Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Ebara Corporation

Other

Tokyo Electron Limited

Ngr Limited

Tasmit, Inc.

Yuichiro Yamazaki

Ichirota Nagahama

Motosuke Miyoshi

Tohru Satake

Nobuharu Noji

Takeshi Murakami

Takamitsu Nagai

Masahiro Hatakeyama

Tsutomu Karimata

Mamoru Nakasuji

Shoji Yoshikawa

Hirosi Sobukawa

Kazuyoshi Sugihara

Kenji Watanabe

Toshifumi Kimba

Atsushi Onishi

Katsuya Okumura

Mutsumi Saito

Shin Oowada

Haruo Okano

Hideaki Abe

Ichiro Mori

Osamu Nagano

Shinichi Ito

Susumu Hashimoto

Soichi Inoue

Toshiya Kotani

Makoto Kato

Atsushi Ando

Keiji Horioka

Tetsuro Nakasugi

Satoshi Mori

Toru Watanabe

Hiroko Nakamura

Kei Hayasaki

Hiroshi Sobukawa

Haruki Komano

Toru Mikami

Tadahiro Takigawa

Yukihiro Tanaka

Mitsuyo Kariya

Yoshinao Hirabayashi

Sumio Sasaki

Takayoshi Fujii

Munehiro Ogasawara

Hisashi Kaneko

Hiroyuki Hayashi

Tetsuo Matsuda

Matsutaro Miyamoto

Makoto Sekine

Takayuki Sakai

Takayuki Fukasawa

Tadashi Mitsui

Kiyoshi Hattori

Shingo Kanamitsu

Shunko Magoshi

Itsuko Sakai

Shinichi Imai

Makoto Kaneko

Masahiro Shimizu

Yusaku Konno

Takashi Hirano

Jun Takamatsu

Kazufumi Kubota

Fumiaki Shigemitsu

Shigeru Ogawa

Kenji Ohtoshi

Masahiro Inoue

Mitsutoshi Watabiki

Susumu Takashima

Yusuke Ilda

Nobuhara Noji

Tsutomi Karimata

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for analyzing the energy of backscattered electrons generated from a specimen. The apparatus includes: an electron beam source () for generating a primary electron beam; an electron optical system () configured to direct the primary electron beam to a specimen while focusing and deflecting the primary electron beam; and an energy analyzing system configured to detect an energy spectrum of backscattered electrons emitted from the specimen. The energy analyzing system includes: a Wien filter () configured to disperse the backscattered electrons; a detector () configured to measure the energy spectrum of the backscattered electrons dispersed by the Wien filter (); and an operation controller () configured to change an intensity of a quadrupole field of the Wien filter (), while moving a detecting position of the detector () for the backscattered electrons in synchronization with the change in the intensity of the quadrupole field.

Apparatus and method for measuring energy spectrum of backscattered electrons

A scanning electron microscope includes: a retarding power source configured to apply a retarding voltage to a specimen; a combined objective lens configured to focus the primary beam on a surface of the specimen; an electrostatic deflection system configured to deflect the primary beam to direct the primary beam to each point in a field of view on the surface of the specimen; a first scintillation detector having a first scintillator configured to emit light upon incidence of secondary electrons which have been emitted from the specimen; a Wien filter configured to deflect the secondary electrons in one direction without deflecting the primary beam; and a second scintillation detector having a second scintillator configured to detect the secondary electrons deflected by the Wien filter. The second scintillator has a distal end located away from the axis of the primary beam.

Secondary particle detection system of scanning electron microscope

An inspection apparatus by an electron beam comprises: an electron-optical devicehaving an electron-optical system for irradiating the object with a primary electron beam from an electron beam source, and a detector for detecting the secondary electron image projected by the electron-optical systems; a stage systemfor holding and moving the object relative to the electron-optical system; a mini-environment chamberfor supplying a clean gas to the object to prevent dust from contacting the object; a working chamberfor accommodating the stage device, the working chamber being controllable so as to have a vacuum atmosphere; at least two loading chambersdisposed between the mini-environment chamber and the working chamber, adapted to be independently controllable so as to have a vacuum atmosphere; and a loaderfor transferring the object to the stage system through the loading chambers.

Inspection system by charged particle beam and method of manufacturing devices using the system

An inspection apparatus by an electron beam comprises: an electron-optical devicehaving an electron-optical system for irradiating the object with a primary electron beam from an electron beam source, and a detector for detecting the secondary electron image projected by the electron-optical system; a stage systemfor holding and moving the object relative to the electron-optical system; a mini-environment chamberfor supplying a clean gas to the object to prevent dust from contacting to the object; a working chamberfor accommodating the stage device, the working chamber being controllable so as to have a vacuum atmosphere; at least two loading chambersdisposed between the mini-environment chamber and the working chamber, adapted to be independently controllable so as to have a vacuum atmosphere; and a loaderfor transferring the object to the stage system through the loading chambers.

In accordance with an embodiment, a pattern inspection method includes: applying a light generated from a light source to the same region of a substrate in which an inspection target pattern is formed; guiding, imaging and then detecting a reflected light from the substrate, and acquiring a detection signal for each of a plurality of different wavelengths; and adding the detection signals of the different wavelengths in association with an incident position of an imaging surface to generate added image data including information on a wavelength and signal intensity, judging, by the added image data, whether the inspection target pattern has any defect, and when judging that the inspection target pattern has a defect, detecting the position of the defect in a direction perpendicular to the substrate.

Pattern inspection apparatus and pattern inspection method

An apparatus capable of detecting defects of a pattern on a sample with high accuracy and reliability and at a high throughput, and a semiconductor manufacturing method using the same are provided. The electron beam apparatus is a mapping-projection-type electron beam apparatus for observing or evaluating a surface of the sample by irradiating the sample with a primary electron beam and forming on a detector an image of reflected electrons emitted from the sample. An electron impact-type detector such as an electron impact-type CCD or an electron impact-type TDI is used as the detector for detecting the reflected electrons. The reflected electrons are selectively detected from an energy difference between the reflected electrons and secondary electrons emitted from the sample. To eliminate charge-up caused on the sample surface by irradiation with the primary electron beam, the surface of the sample is covered with a cover placed above the sample and a gas is supplied to the space above the sample covered with the cover. The gas is brought into contact with the sample surface to reduce charge-up on the sample surface.

Mapping-projection-type electron beam apparatus for inspecting sample by using electrons emitted from the sample

An electron beam emitted from an electron gun (G) forms a reduced image on a sample (S) through a non-dispersion Wien-filter (-), an electromagnetic deflector (-), a beam separator (-), and a tablet lens (-) as an objective lens. The beam separator (-) is configured such that a distance by which a secondary electron beam passes through the beam separator is approximately three times longer than a distance by which a primary electron beam passes through the beam separator. Therefore, even if a magnetic field in the beam separator is set to deflect the primary electron beam by a small angle equal to or less than approximately 10 degrees, the secondary electron beam can be deflected by approximately 30 degrees, so that the primary and secondary electron beams are sufficiently separated. Also, since the primary electron beam is deflected by a small angle, less aberration occurs in the primary electron beam. Accordingly, since a light path length of a primary electro-optical system, it is possible to reduce the influence of space charge and the occurrence of deflection aberration.

Electron beam apparatus

A pattern matching method includes: detecting an edge of a pattern in a pattern image obtained by imaging the pattern; segmenting the detected pattern edge to generate a first segment set consisting of first segments; segmenting a pattern edge on reference data which serves as a reference for evaluating the pattern to generate a second segment set consisting of second segments; combining any of the segments in the first segment set with any of the segments in the second segment set to define a segment pair consisting of first and second segments; calculating the compatibility coefficient between every two segment pairs in the defined segment pairs; defining new segment pairs by narrowing down the defined segment pairs by calculating local consistencies of the defined segment pairs on the basis of the calculated compatibility coefficients and by excluding segment pairs having lower local consistencies; determining an optimum segment pair by repeating the calculating the compatibility coefficient and the defining new segment pairs by narrowing down the segment pairs; calculating a feature quantity of a shift vector that links the first and second segments making up the optimum segment pair; and performing position matching between the pattern image and the reference data on the basis of the calculated feature quantity of the shift vector.

Pattern matching method, program and semiconductor device manufacturing method

A sample is evaluated at a high throughput by reducing axial chromatic aberration and increasing the transmittance of secondary electrons. Electron beams emitted from an electron gunare irradiated onto a samplethrough a primary electro-optical system, and electrons consequently emitted from the sample are detected by a detectorthrough a secondary electro-optical system. A Wien filtercomprising a multi-pole lens for correcting axial chromatic aberration is disposed between a magnification lensin the secondary electro-optical system and a beam separatorfor separating a primary electron beam and a secondary electron beam, for correcting axial chromatic aberration caused by an objective lenswhich comprises an electromagnetic lens having a magnetic gap defined on a sample side.

Projection electron beam apparatus and defect inspection system using the apparatus

Wavelength dispersion of intensity of light reflected from an evaluation object is measured. A complex refractive index of a substance forming the evaluation object and the environment are prepared. Virtual component ratios comprising a mixture ratio of the substances forming the evaluation object and the environment are prepared. Reflectance wavelength dispersions to the virtual component ratios are calculated. Similar reflectance wavelength dispersions having a small difference with the measured wavelength dispersion are extracted from the reflectance wavelength dispersions. Weighted average to the virtual component ratios used for calculating the similar reflectance wavelength dispersions are calculated to obtain a component ratio of the substance forming the evaluation object and the environment so that weighting is larger when the difference is smaller. A structure of the evaluation object is determined from the calculated component ratio.

Structure inspection method, pattern formation method, process condition determination method and resist pattern evaluation apparatus

An electron beam apparatus for providing an evaluation of a sample, such as a semiconductor wafer, that includes a micro-pattern with a minimum line width not greater than 0.1 &#x3bc;m with high throughput. A primary electron beam generated by an electron gun is irradiated onto a sample and secondary electrons emanating from the sample are formed into an image on a detector by an image projection optical system. An electron gunhas a cathodeand a drawing electrode, and an electron emission surfaceof the cathode defines a concave surface. The drawing electrodehas a convex surfacecomposed of a partial outer surface of a second sphere facing the electron emission surfaceof the cathode and an apertureformed through the convex surface for passage of the electrons. An aberration correction optical apparatus comprises two identically sized multi-polar Wien filters arranged such that their centers are in alignment with a &#xbc; plane position and a &#xbe; plane position, respectively, along an object plane-image plane segment in the aberration correction optical apparatus, and optical elements having bidirectional focus disposed in an object plane position, an intermediate image-formation plane position and an image plane position, respectively, in the aberration correction optical apparatus.

Electron beam apparatus and an aberration correction optical apparatus

A substrate inspection apparatus includes: an electron beam irradiation device which emits an electron beam and causes the electron beam to irradiate a substrate to be inspected as a primary beam; an electron beam detector which detects at least one of a secondary electron, a reflected electron and a backscattered electron that are generated from the substrate that has been irradiated by the electron beam, and which outputs a signal that forms a one-dimensional or two-dimensional image of a surface of the substrate; a mapping projection optical system which causes imaging of at least one of the secondary electron, the reflected electron and the backscattered electron on the electron beam detector as a secondary beam; and an electromagnetic wave irradiation device which generates an electromagnetic wave and causes the electromagnetic wave to irradiate a location on the surface of the substrate at which the secondary beam is generated.

Substrate inspection apparatus, substrate inspection method and method of manufacturing semiconductor device

A mask pattern inspection method includes: transferring a mask pattern onto a conductor substrate or a semiconductor substrate; preparing a sample including a substrate surface pattern in an electrically conductive state to the substrate, the substrate surface pattern being constituted of a convex pattern or a concave pattern each having a shape in accordance with the transferred mask pattern, or a surface layer obtained by filling the concave pattern with a material; irradiating the sample with an electron beam to detect at least one of a secondary electron, a reflected electron and a backscattered electron generated from the surface of the sample, thereby acquiring an image of the sample surface; and inspecting the mask pattern on the basis of the image.

Mask pattern inspection method, exposure condition verification method, and manufacturing method of semiconductor device

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yuichiro Yamazaki