Hitachi-high-technologies Corporation

Yutaka Hojo

Hiroyuki Shindo

Hitoshi Sugahara

Norio Hasegawa

Takeshi Kato

Yasutaka Toyoda

Michio Oikawa

Takuma Shibahara

Daisuke Hibino

Junichi Tanaka

Hidetoshi Morokuma

Hiroki Kawada

Akiyuki Sugiyama

Takumichi Sutani

Takeyoshi Ohashi

Tsuyoshi Minakawa

Hidetoshi Sato

Yukio Yoshizawa

A pattern-measuring apparatus and a semiconductor-measuring system are provided which are able to obtain an evaluation result for suitably selecting processing with respect to a semiconductor device. In particular, there is proposed a pattern-measuring apparatus including an arithmetic device which compares a circuit pattern of an electronic device with a reference pattern, in which the arithmetic device classifies the circuit pattern in processing unit of the circuit pattern on the basis of a comparison of a measurement result between the circuit pattern and the reference pattern with at least two threshold values.

Pattern-measuring apparatus and semiconductor-measuring system

An object of the present invention is to provide a pattern-measuring apparatus and a semiconductor-measuring system which are able to obtain an evaluation result for suitably selecting processing with respect to a semiconductor device. In the present invention for attaining the object described above, there is proposed a pattern-measuring apparatus including an arithmetic device which compares a circuit pattern of an electronic device with a reference pattern, in which the arithmetic device classifies the circuit pattern in processing unit of the circuit pattern on the basis of a comparison of a measurement result between the circuit pattern and the reference pattern with at least two threshold values.

An error of an outline point due to a brightness fluctuation cannot be corrected by a simple method such as a method of adding a certain amount of offset. However, in recent years as the miniaturization of the pattern represented by a resist pattern has progressed, it has been difficult to appropriately determine a region that serves as a reference. An outline of the resist pattern is extracted from an image of the resist pattern obtained by a charged particle beam apparatus in consideration of influence of the brightness fluctuation. That is, a plurality of brightness profiles in the vicinity of edge points configuring the outline are obtained and an evaluation value of a shape of the brightness profile in the vicinity of a specific edge is obtained based on the plurality of brightness profiles, and the outline of a specific edge point is corrected, based on the evaluation value.

Measurement method, image processing device, and charged particle beam apparatus

A pattern measurement device includes: a storage section storing mask edge data of a circuit pattern and image data obtained by imaging the circuit pattern; an SEM contour extracting section receiving the image data, SEM contour of the circuit pattern, and cause an exposure simulator to generate estimated SEM contour data of an estimated SEM contour on the basis of the mask edge data and SEM contour data of the extracted SEM contour; a shape classifying section receiving the mask edge data, the SEM contour data, and the estimated contour data to classify the SEM contour data and the estimated SEM contour data into a one-dimensionally shaped contour and a two-dimensionally shaped contour; and an SEM contour sampling section receiving the SEM contour data and the estimated SEM contour data to sample the SEM contour data on the basis of types of the one-dimensionally and two-dimensionally shaped contours.

Pattern measurement device and pattern measurement method

The present invention provides a pattern measuring apparatus () that: acquires the image contour of a circuit pattern formed by transferring design data; classifies the acquired image contour into shape structures; calculates normal vectors for each shape structure; maps the shape structures to the image contour; uses at least one normal direction for each shape structure to stabilize the normal directions to the image contour; and uses the normal vectors for each shape structure to determine the position of a SEM contour.

Pattern measuring apparatus, and pattern measuring method and program

There is provided an electron microscope which is capable of making a significant contribution to accomplishment of efficiency in investigating causes for pattern abnormalities found out. The electron microscope including an I/O for capturing image data on a microscopic image acquired by another electron microscope, a computation processing unit for generating a display signal based on the image data on the microscopic image acquired by another electron microscope and captured via the I/O and image data on a microscopic image acquired by the electron microscope itself, in order that the microscopic image acquired by another electron microscope and the microscopic image acquired by the electron microscope itself are displayed at the same scale and under the same display condition, and a display unit for displaying both of the microscopic images based on the display signal from the computation processing unit.

Electron microscope for inspecting dimension and shape of a pattern formed on a wafer

To provide a charged particle system capable of facilitating comparison between an actual pattern and an ideal pattern using not only two-dimensional CAD data but also three-dimensional CAD data. According to the present invention, using information about the angle of irradiation of a sample with a charged particle beam, a two-dimensional display of an ideal pattern (design data, such as CAD data, for example) is converted into a three-dimensional display, and the three-dimensional ideal pattern is displayed with an observation image. If the three-dimensional ideal pattern is superimposed on the observation image, comparison thereof can be easily carried out. Examples of the ideal pattern include a circuit pattern (CAD data) based on semiconductor design information, an exposure mask pattern based on an exposure mask used for exposure of a semiconductor wafer, and an exposure simulation pattern based on exposure simulation based on the exposure mask and an exposure condition can be used, and at least one of these patterns is displayed three-dimensionally.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yutaka Hojo