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US 12,597,583 B2Granted
FIB and SEM resolution enhancement using asymmetric probe deconvolution
AssigneeFEI Company
InventorsGalen Gledhill, Alexander Henstra
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Abstract
Elongated or other non-circular charged-particle beams (CPBs) are used to produce substrate images that can be processed such as by deconvolution to produce a final image. In some cases, first and second images associated with an asymmetric CPB beams aligned along parallel axes are deconvolved and then combined to produce the final image or combined and then deconvolved to produce the final image. Milling or other processing can be performed by aligning an asymmetric CPB with respect to a CPB scan or processing direction.
Claims20
A charged-particle beam (CPB) imaging method, comprising:
- obtaining an image of a sample, wherein the image is obtained with a first asymmetric CPB shape that is selected by providing different CPB magnification along different axes;
- and
- processing the image based on the first asymmetric CPB shape to produce a final image of the sample.
A CPB imaging system, comprising:
- a CPB optical column operable to produce a first asymmetric CPB that is alignable along a first axis, wherein a shape of the first asymmetric CPB is selected by providing different CPB magnification along different axes;
- a CPB detector situated to produce a first image responsive to the first asymmetric CPB, respectively;
- and
- a processor coupled to produce a final image based on the first image.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.